0ux American ^olfoapa 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 



Our American Holidays 

A SERIES of Anthologies upon American 
Holidays, each volume a collection of 
writings from many sources, historical, poetic, 
religious, patriotic, etc., presenting each 
American festival as seen through the eyes 
of the representative writers of many ages 
and nations. 

EDITED BY 

ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER 

i2mo. Each volume $1.00 net 



NOW READY 

THANKSGIVING LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY 

CHRISTMAS ARBOR DAY 

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

IN PREPARATION 

EASTER FLAG DAY 

FOURTH OF JULY NEW YEAR'S DAY 

MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 

31 East 17th Street - - - New York 



©ur Bmerican IboltDags 



WASHINGTON'S 
BIRTHDAY 



ITS HISTORY, OBSERVANCE, SPIRIT, AND 
SIGNIFICANCE AS RELATED IN PROSE 
AND VERSE, WITH A SELECTION FROM 
WASHINGTON'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 



EDITED BY 

ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER 




NEW YORK 

MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 

1910 



r 3/SL 

.S3 



Copyright, iqio, by 

MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 

New York 

Published ', January, iqio 



©CLA25 



PREFACE 

The popular idea of Washington has recently be- 
gun to veer away from the vision of an eighteenth 
century demigod in a wig, — an old-fashioned statue 
in dusky bronze, stern and forbidding. We are 
swinging around toward the idea of a loveable, 
fallible, very human personality with humor, a hot 
temper, and a genuine love of pleasure. 

Accordingly, in gathering material for this book 
the editor has passed by those earlier writers who 
are mainly responsible for this distorted view; and 
he has aimed to gather here the essays, orations, 
poems, stories, and exercises which best exhibit the 
modern conception of Washington ; together with a 
selection from his own writings, and the finest of 
the elder tributes to the memory of our greatest Na- 
tional Hero. 



NOTE 

The Editor and Publishers wish to acknowledge 
their indebtedness to Houghton, Mifflin & Company ; 
Doubleday, Page & Company; J. B. Lippincott & 
Co. ; Mr. David McKay, John Macy, and others who 
have very kindly granted permission to reprint se- 
lections from works bearing their copyright. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction xi 

I 
THE DAY 

Washington's Birthday . Oliver Wendell Holmes 3 

Washington's Birthday . Margaret E. Sangster 4 

The Birthday of Washington . . . Anonymous 5 

Washington's Birthday . . George Howland 7 
Washington and Our Schools and Colleges 

Charles W. Eliot g 

Crown Our Washington . Hezekiah Butterworth 12 

Washington-Month .... Will Carleton 13 

II 
EARLY YEARS 
A Glimpse of Washington's Birthplace 

Grace B. Johnson 1% 

Something, of George Washington's Boyhood 

Anonymous 19 

Washington's Training 

Charles Wentworth Up ham 21 

Washington as He Looked 24 

III 
THE GENERAL 
Washington Is Appointed Commander-in-Chief 

Sydney George Fisher 27 

Washington at Trenton . Richard Watson Gilder 33 

George Washington 34 

Valley Forge .... Henry Armitt Brown 42 
Washington at Valley Forge 

Canon R. G. Sutherland 44 

A Frenchman's Estimate of Washington in 1781 

Claude C. Robin 45 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

IV 

THE PRESIDENT 

Washington and the Constitution page 

John M. Harlan 51 

Washington's Administration . . Edward S. Ellis 53 

Washington Mary Wingate 57 

Washington's Inauguration 

Edward Everett Hale 58 

Washingtoniana 65 

Lessons from the Washington Centennial 

George A. Gordon 75 

President Washington's Receptions 

William Sullivan 78 

The Foreign Policy of Washington 

Charles James Fox 80 

V 

LAST DAYS 

George Washington . . Hamilton Wright Mabie 85 
Washington's Last Days 

Elisabeth Eggleston Seelye 101 

The Mount Vernon Tribute no 

The Words of Washington . . Daniel Webster in 

VI 

TRIBUTES 

Memorials of Washington . Henry B. Carrington 117 
From the " Commemoration Ode " 

Harriet Monroe 119 

Washington's Statue . Henry Theodore Tuckerman 120 

Tributes 122 

Washinton's Name in the Hall of Fame 

Margaret E. Sangster 141 

Estimates of Washington 142 

Washington's Religious Character 

• William M'Kinley 143 

Washington Anonymous 145 



CONTENTS ix 

VII 

WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY page 

The Highest Pedestal . . William E. Gladstone 149 

Washington in History . . Chauncey M. Depew 150 

To the Shade of Washington . . Richard Alsop 151 
The Majestic Eminence of Washington 

Chauncey M. Depew 153 

For a Little Pupil Anonymous 154 

Washington's Fame .... Asher Robbins 154 
Washington, the Brightest Name on History's 

Page Eliza Cook 156 

Washington, the Patriot 159 

VIII 
THE WHOLE MAN 
George Washington . . . John Hall Ingham 163 
Historical Memorabilia of Washington 

H. B. Carrington 163 

A Bird's-Eye View of Washington 

Henry Mitchell MacCracken 166 

The Character of Washington . Daniel Webster 169 
Mount Vernon, the Home of Washington 

William Day 191 

The Unselfishness of Washington 

Robert Treat Paine 191 

The Genius of Washington . Edwin P. Whipple 193 
Washington's Service to Education 

Charles W. E. Chap in 197 

Address at the Dedication of the Washington 

Monument John W. Daniel 208 

The Character of Washington 

Henry Cabot Lodge 217 

IX 
ANECDOTES AND STORIES 

Anecdotes of Washington 221 

The Abuse of Washington 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson 226 



x CONTENTS 

Providential Events in the Life of Washington page 

Irving Allen 227 

Characteristics of Washington 239 

Great George Washington 

. Kate Douglas Wig gin and Nora A. Smith 247 
Headquarters in 1776 . . Paul Leicester Ford 254 

X 

SELECTIONS FROM WASHINGTON'S SPEECHES 
AND WRITINGS 

Selections from the Rules of Civility . . . 263 

Said by Washington 266 

Washington Before the Battle of Long Island, 

August, 1776 269 

From Various Letters, Speeches, and Addresses . 270 

Washington's Farewell to the Army .... 279 
President Washington's Response to the French 
Ambassador on Receipt of the Colors of France, 

1769 280 

Washington's Farewell Address 282 

XI 

EXERCISES 

Decorations for Washington's Birthday Exercises 309 
Some Years in Washington's Life 

M. Lizzie Stanley 309 

Something Better .... Clara J. Denton 318 
The States Crowning Washington 

Kate Bowles Sherwood 319 

The New George Washington . . Anonymous 324 

In Praise of Washington 325 



INTRODUCTION 

A good deal of American history was once 
violently distorted by the partisanship of the 
eighteenth century, frozen solid by its icy formal- 
ism, and left thus for the edification of succeeding 
generations. For example, it was not until 1868 
that Franklin's Autobiography was by accident 
given to the world in the simple natural style in 
which he wrote it. The book had been " edited " 
by Franklin's loyalist grandson, and had been cut 
and tortured into the pompous, stilted periods that 
were supposed to befit the dignity of so important 
a personage. When John Bigelow published the 
original with all its naivete and homely turns of 
phrases and suppressed passages, he shed a flood of 
light upon Benjamin Franklin. 

But not such a flood as has still more recently 
been shed upon our struggle for independence, and 
the hero who led it. 

Mr. Sydney George Fisher 1 has shown how the 
history of the Revolution has been garbled by the 
historians into the story of a struggle between a vil- 
lainous monster on the one hand, and a virtuous 
fairy on the other: He has shown how a period 

1 In "The True History of the American Revolution" 
and " The Struggle for American Independence." 



xii INTRODUCTION 

that is said to have changed the thought of the world 
like the epochs of Socrates, of Christ, of the Refor- 
mation, and of the French Revolution, has been de- 
scribed in a series of " able rhetorical efforts, en- 
larged Fourth-of-July orations, or pleasing literary 
essays on selected phases of the contest." These 
writers have ignored the fearful struggle of the 
patriots with the loyalists, the early leniency of Eng- 
land as expressed in the conduct of General Howe, 
the Clinton-Cornwallis controversy, and many other 
important subjects. In short, their design was — as 
Mr. Wister has happily put it, " to leave out any 
facts which spoil the political picture of the Revolu- 
tion they chose to paint for our edification; a 
ferocious, blood-shot tyrant on the one side, and on 
the other a compact band of ' Fathers,' downtrod- 
den and martyred, yet with impeccable linen and 
bland legs." 

In view of this state of affairs, it is not strange 
that Washington should have shared in the general 
misrepresentation. Like Franklin's, his writings, 
too, were altered by villainous editors. In his let- 
ters, for example, such a natural phrase as " one 
hundred thousand dollars will be but a flea-bite " 
was changed to " one hundred thousand dollars will 
be totally inadequate." 

The editors were aided in their refrigerating en- 
terprise by a throng of partisan biographers, first 
among whom was the Rev. Mr. Weems, that arch- 
manipulator of facts for moral purposes. They 
were helped also by many of our old sculptors and 
painters, who were evidently more concerned to 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

portray a grand American hero in a wig than to give 
us a real man of flesh and blood. 

" By such devices," writes Owen Wister, 1 " was 
a frozen image of George Washington held up for 
Americans to admire, rigid with congealed virtue, 
ungenial, unreal, to whom from our school-days up 
we have been paying a sincere and respectful re- 
gard, but a regard without interest, sympathy, heart 
— or, indeed, belief. It thrills a true American to 
the marrow to learn at last that this far-off figure, 
this George Washington, this man of patriotic splen- 
dor, the captain and savior of our Revolution, the 
self-sacrificing and devoted President, was a man 
also with a hearty laugh, with a love of the theater, 
with a white-hot temper ... a constant sports- 
man, fox-hunter, and host. . . ." 

" The unfreezing of Washington was begun by 
Irving, but was in that day a venture so new and 
startling, that Irving, gentleman and scholar, went 
at it gingerly and with many inferential depreca- 
tions. His hand, however, first broke the ice, 
and to-day we can see the live and human 
Washington, full length. He does not lose an 
inch by it, and we gain a progenitor of flesh 
and blood." 

Since Irving the thawing process has been car- 
ried on with growing success by such able biog- 
raphers as Lodge and Scudder, Hapgood and Ford, 
Woodrow Wilson, Owen Wister, and Frederick 
Trevor Hill. 

As yet this new idea of Washington's essential 

1 "The Seven Ages of Washington." 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

humanity has seemed too novel and startling to 
make its way deep into the popular conviction. I 
say " new idea." In reality it is a very old idea ; 
only it has been smothered by the partisan writers 
of history and biography. Certainly the accounts of 
the first celebrations of Washington's Birthday do 
not sound as though our ancestors were trying to 
work up their enthusiasm over a steel-engraving 
hero. 

" It was the most natural thing," writes Walsh, 1 
" for our forefathers to choose Washington's Birth- 
day as a time for general thanksgiving and rejoicing, 
and it is interesting to note that the observance was 
not delayed until after the death of Washington. 
Washington had the satisfaction of receiving the 
congratulations of his fellow-citizens many times 
upon the return of his birthday, frequently being a 
guest at the banquets given in honor of the oc- 
casion. In fact, after the Revolution, Washing- 
ton's Birthday practically took the place of the 
birthday of the various crowned heads of Great 
Britain, which had always been celebrated with en- 
thusiasm during colonial times. When independ- 
ence was established, all these royal birthdays were 
cast aside, and the birthday of Washington natu- 
rally became one of the most conspicuous in the 
calendar of America's holidays. 

" It may be interesting at this time to look back 
upon those early days of the republic and see how 
the newly liberated citizens attested their admira- 
tion for their great general and the first President of 

1 In " Curiosities of Popular Customs." 



INTRODUCTION xv 

their country. But the people did not wait until 
Washington was raised to the highest position his 
country could give him before honoring his birth- 
day. 

" The first recorded mention of the celebration is 
said to be the one in The Virginia Gazette or The 
American Advertiser of Richmond: 'Tuesday last 
being the birthday of his Excellency, General 
Washington, our illustrious Commander-in-Chief, 
the same was commemorated here with the utmost 
demonstrations of joy/ The day thus celebrated 
was February n, 1782, the Old Style in the cal- 
endar not having then been everywhere and for 
every purpose abandoned. Indeed, the stone placed 
as late as in 1815 on the site of his birthplace in 
Westmoreland County, Virginia, had the follow- 
ing inscription: * Here, the nth of February, 1732, 
George Washington was born.' 

"Twelve months later the nth was com- 
memorated at Talbot Court-House in Maryland. 
On the same day a number of gentlemen met in a 
tavern in New York. One had written an ode. 
Another brought a list of toasts. All, before they 
went reeling and singing home, agreed to assemble 
in future on the same anniversary and make merry 
over the birth of Washington. 

" Next year they had an ampler opportunity. In 
the previous October the British troops had evacu- 
ated New York City, which was gradually recover- 
ing from the distresses of the long war. The 
demonstrations were not very elaborate, but they 
were intensely patriotic. In a newspaper of Febru- 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

ary 17, 1784, we find an interesting account of this 
first public celebration in New York : 

" ' Wednesday last being the birthday of his Ex- 
cellency, General Washington, the same was cele- 
brated here by all the true friends of American In- 
dependence and Constitutional Liberty with that 
hilarity and manly decorum ever attendant on the 
Sons of Freedom. In the evening an entertainment 
was given on board the East India ship in this har- 
bor to a very brilliant and respectable company, and 
a discharge of thirteen cannon was fired on this joy- 
ful occasion/ 

" A club called a ' Select Club of Whigs ' assem- 
bled in New York on the evening of February 11, 
and a brief account of the proceedings at its meet- 
ing was sent to the New York Gazette, with an 
amusing song, written, it was stated, especially for 
this occasion. The following stanzas will serve as 
a sample of this effusion of poetical patriotism : 

Americans, rejoice; 

While songs employ the voice, 

Let trumpets sound. 
The thirteen stripes display- 
In flags and streamers gay, 
Tis Washington's Birthday, 

Let joy abound. 

Long may he live to see 
This land of liberty 

Flourish in peace; 
Long may he live to prove 
A grateful people's love 
And late to heaven remove, 

Where joys ne'er cease. 



J 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

Fill the glass to the brink, 
Washington's health we'll drink, 

Tis his birthday. 
Glorious deeds he has done, 
By him our cause is won, 
Long live great Washington! 

Huzza ! Huzza ! 

" The following is also an interesting example of 
newspaper editorial patriotism which appeared in 
the New York Gazette at the same time : ' After the 
Almighty Author of our existence and happiness, to 
whom, as a people, are we under the greatest obliga- 
tions ? I know you will answer " To Washing- 
ton." That great, that gloriously disinterested man 
has, without the idea of pecuniary reward, on the 
contrary, much to his private danger, borne the 
greatest and most distinguished part in our political 
salvation. He is now retired from public service, 
with, I trust, the approbation of God, his country, 
and his own heart. But shall we forget him ? No ; 
rather let our hearts cease to beat than an ungrate- 
ful forgetfulness shall sully the part any of us have 
taken in the redemption of our country. On this 
day, the hero enters into the fifty-third year of his 
age. Shall such a day pass unnoticed? No; let a 
temperate manifestation of joy express the sense we 
have of the blessings that arose upon America on 
that day which gave birth to Washington. Let us 
call our children around us and tell them the many 
blessings they owe to him and to those illustrious 
characters who have assisted him in the great work 
of the emancipation of our country, and urge them 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

by such examples to transmit the delights of free- 
dom and independence to their posterity/ 

" It is also interesting to know that New York 
City was not the only place in the country remem- 
bering Washington's Birthday in this year 1784. 
The residents of Richmond, Virginia, were not for- 
getful of the day, and in the evening an elegant en- 
tertainment and ball were given in the Capitol Build- 
ing, which, we are informed, were largely attended. 
So late as 1796, Kentucky and Virginia persisted in 
preserving the Old Style date. But we have docu- 
mentary evidence that in 1790 the Tammany Society 
of New York celebrated the day on February 22. 
The society had been organized less than a year, and 
it is interesting to see that it did not allow the first 
Washington's Birthday in its history to pass by 
without fitting expressions of regard for the man 
who was then living in the city as President of the 
United States. Washington, at that time, lived in 
the lower part of Broadway, a few doors below 
Trinity Church. Congress was in session in the old 
City Hall, on the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, 
now occupied by the Sub-Treasury. New York was 
the capital of the country, but it was the last year 
that it enjoyed that distinction, for before the close 
of 1790 the seat of government was removed to 
Philadelphia, where it remained until 1800, when 
permanent governmental quarters were taken up at 
Washington. It may be of interest to know how the 
founders of this famous political organization com- 
memorated Washington's Birthday. Fortunately, 
the complete account of this first Tammany cele- 



INTRODUCTION xix 

bration has been preserved. It was published in a 
New York newspaper, a day or two after the event, 
as follows : 

" ' At a meeting of the Society of St. Tammany, 
at their wigwam in this city, on Monday evening 
last, after finishing the ordinary business of the 
evening, it was unanimously resolved : That the 226. 
day of February be, from this day and ever after, 
commemorated by this society as the birthday of the 
Illustrious George Washington, President of the 
United States of America. The society then pro- 
ceeded to the commemoration of the auspicious day 
which gave birth to the distinguished chief, and the 
following toasts were drank in porter, the produce 
of the United States, accompanied with universal 
acclamations of applause: 

1. May the auspicious birthday of our great Grand 
Sachem, George Washington, ever be commemorated by 
all the real sons of St. Tammany. 

2. The birthday of those chiefs who lighted the great 
Council Fire in 1775. 

3. The glorious Fourth of July, 1776, the birth of Ameri- 
can Independence. 

4. The perpetual memory of those Sachems and warriors 
who have been called by the Kitchi Manitou to the Wig- 
wam above since the Revolution. 

5. The births of the Sachems and warriors who have pre- 
sided at the different council fires of the thirteen tribes 
since 1776. 

6. Our Chief Sachem, who presides over the council fire 
of our tribe. 

7. The 12th of May, which is the birthday of our titular 
saint and patron. 

8. The birth of Columbus, our secondary patron. 



xx INTRODUCTION 

9. The memory of the great Odagh 'Segte, first Grand 
Sachem of the Oneida Nation, and all his successors. 

10. The friends and patrons of virtue and freedom from 
Tammany to Washington. 

11. The birth of the present National Constitution, 17th 
of September, 1787. 

12. The Sachems and warriors who composed that 
council. 

13. May the guardian genius of freedom pronounce at 
the birth of all her sons — Where Liberty dwells, there is 
his country. 

" * After mutual reciprocations of friendship on 
the joyous occasion, the society adjourned with their 
usual order and harmony.' 

" In Washington ever since the first President was 
inaugurated it had been the practice of the House to 
adjourn for half an hour to congratulate him on the 
happy return of his natal day. But this observance 
was dropped in 1796, on account of the animosities 
excited by the Jay Treaty. 

" The Philadelphians, always patriotic, never al- 
lowed Washington's Birthday to go by without the 
celebration. In 1793 a number of old Revolutionary 
officers belonging to the First Brigade of Pennsyl- 
vania Militia had a ' very splendid entertainment at 
Mr. Hill's tavern in Second Street, near Race 
Street.' According to a Philadelphia newspaper ac- 
count, the company was numerous and truly re- 
spectable, and among the guests on that occasion 
were the Governor of Pennsylvania, Thomas Mifflin, 
and Mr. Muhlenberg, Speaker of the House of Rep- 
resentatives. At all these patriotic banquets it was 
customary to give as many toasts as there were 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

States in the Union, so that during the early years 
we invariably find that thirteen toasts was the rule. 
As new States were added, however, extra toasts 
were added to the list. Just when this custom died 
out can perhaps not be definitely determined, but 
probably the rapid increase of the States may have 
had something to do with it, as the diners probably 
saw that it was taxing their drinking abilities too 
heavily with the addition of each new State. How- 
ever, at this Philadelphia celebration the toasts were 
fifteen, as two new States had recently been added, 
and among some of the most interesting are the fol- 
lowing : 



The people of the United States — May their dignity and 
happiness be perpetual, and may the gratitude of the Na- 
tion be ever commensurate with their privileges. 

The President of the United States — May the evening of 
his life be attended with felicity equal to the utility and 
glory of its meridian. 

The Fair Daughters of America — May the purity, the 
rectitude, and the virtues of their mind ever continue 
equal to their beauty and external accomplishments. 

The Republic of France — Wisdom and stability to her 
councils, success to her armies and navies, and may her 
enemies be compensated for their defeats by the speedy 
and general diffusion of that liberty which they are vainly 
attempting to suppress. 

May Columbia be ever able to boast a Jefferson in coun- 
cil, a Hamilton in finance, and, when necessary, a Wash- 
ington to lead her armies to conquest and glory. 

The Day — May such auspicious periods not cease to recur 
till every day in the year shall have smiled on Columbia 
with the birth of a Washington. 

Our Unfortunate Friend the Marquis de Lafayette — May 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

America become shortly his asylum from indignity and 
wrong, and may the noon and evening of his life be yet 
honorable and happy in the bosom of that country where its 
morning shone with such unclouded splendor. 



" In conclusion, the newspaper account of this 
celebration states that ' the afternoon and evening 
were agreeably spent in social pleasures and con- 
vivial mirth, and the conduct of the whole company 
was marked by that politeness, harmony, and friend- 
ship which ought ever to characterize the intercourse 
of fellow-citizens and gentlemen.' 

" Balls and banquets, it will be seen, were the 
chief methods employed in celebrating the day, and 
there was hardly a town so small that it could not 
manage to have at least one of 'these functions in 
honor of George Washington. The early news- 
papers for a month, and often longer, after the 22d 
of February, were filled with brief accounts of these 
celebrations from different localities. Many of 
them are very interesting, showing, as they do, the 
patriotism of the people, as well as their customs 
and habits in their social entertainments. For in- 
stance, when Washington's Birthday was celebrated 
in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1791, the Baltimore Ad- 
vertiser gives us the following amusing account of 
a ball held at Wise's tavern: 

" ' The meeting was numerous and brilliant. Joy 
beamed in every countenance. Sparkling eyes, 
dimpled cheeks dressed in smiles, prompted by the 
occasion, with all the various graces of female 
beauty, contributed to heighten the pleasure of the 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

scene. At an interesting moment a portrait of the 
President, a striking likeness, was suddenly ex- 
hibited. The illustrious original had been often 
seen in the same room in the mild character of a 
friend, a pleased and pleasing guest. The song of 
" God Bless Great Washington, Long Live Great 
Washington," succeeded. In this prayer many 
voices and all hearts united. May it not be breathed 
in vain.' " 

In course of time Washington's Birthday was 
made a legal holiday in one State after another, un- 
til to-day it is legally recognized in every State but 
Alabama. 

But as it gradually became legalized, so it also 
became formalized little by little, until, in some 
parts of America, the very phrase, " a Washington's 
Birthday celebration," came to mean a sort of exer- 
cise in hypocrisy, — a half-hearted attempt to gal- 
vanize a dead emotion into life. 

This attitude toward Washington as a man was 
due largely to the misrepresentations of the early 
literature. Three distinct eras in our regard for 
him as a public character have been pointed out 
by Bradley T. Johnson : 1 

The generation which fought the Revolution, framed 
and adopted the Constitution, and established the United 
States were impressed with the most profound veneration, 
the most devoted affection, the most absolute idolatry for 
the hero, sage, statesman. In the reaction that came in 
the next generation against "the old soldiers," who for 
thirty years had assumed all the honors and enjoyed all 

x " General Washington." 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

the fruits of the victory that they had won, accelerated 
by the division in American sentiment for or against the 
French Revolution, it came to be felt, as the younger gen- 
eration always will feel, that the achievements of the 
veterans had been greatly overrated and their demigod 
enormously exaggerated. They thought, as English Harry 
did at Agincourt, that " Old men forget : yet all shall be 
forgot, but they'll remember with advantages what feats 
they did that day." 

The fierce attacks of the Jeffersonian Democracy on 
Washington, his principles, his life, and his habits, exer- 
cised a potent influence in diminishing the general respect 
for his abilities felt by the preceding generation; and 
Washington came to be regarded as a worthy, honest, well- 
meaning gentleman, but with no capacity for military and 
only mediocre ability in civil affairs. This estimate con- 
tinued from the beginning of Jefferson's administration to 
the first of Grant's. Neither Marshall nor Irving did much 
during that period to place him in a proper historical 
light. . . . 

But in the last twenty-five years there has been a steady 
drift toward giving Washington his proper place in history 
and his appropriate appreciation as soldier and statesman. 
The general who never won a battle is now understood 
to have been the Revolution itself, and one of the great 
generals of history. The statesman who never made a 
motion, nor devised a measure, nor constructed a proposi- 
tion in the convention of which he was president, is appre- 
ciated as the spirit, the energy, the force, the wisdom 
which initiated, organized, and directed the formation of 
the Constitution of the United States and the Union by, 
through, and under it; and therefore it seems now pos- 
sible to present him as the Virginian soldier, gentleman, 
and planter, as a man, the evolution of the society of 
which he formed a part, representative of his epoch, and 
his surroundings, developed by circumstances into the 
greatest character of all time — the first and most illustrious 
of Americans. 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

Henry Cabot Lodge, 1 writing in 1899, was one of 
the first to discover " the new Washington." " The 
real man," he wrote, " has been so overlaid with 
myths and traditions, and so distorted by mislead- 
ing criticisms, that ... he has been wellnigh 
lost. We have the religious and statuesque myth, 
we have the Weems myth (which turns Washing- 
ton into a faultless prig), and the ludicrous myth 
of the writer of paragraphs. We have the stately 
hero of Sparks, and Everett, and Marshall, and 
Irving, with all his great deeds as general and 
President duly recorded and set down in polished 
and eloquent sentences; and we know him to be 
very great and wise and pure, and, be it said with 
bated breath, very dry and cold. ... In death as 
in life, there is something about Washington, call 
it greatness, dignity, majesty, what you will, which 
seems to hold men aloof and keep them from know- 
ing him. In truth he was a difficult man to 
know. . . . 

" Behind the popular myths, behind the statuesque 
figure of the orator and the preacher, behind the 
general and the President of the historian, there was 
a strong, vigorous man, in whose veins ran warm, 
red blood, in whose heart were stormy passions and 
deep sympathy for humanity, in whose brain were 
far-reaching thoughts, and who was informed 
throughout his being with a resistless will." 

It is a shameful thing that there should ever have 
been any doubt in American minds of the true sig- 
nificance of Washington either as man or soldier 

1 Introduction to "George Washington." 



xxvi INTRODUCTION 

or statesman. But the writers of our day have de- 
cided that — if they can help it — the sins of the 
fathers are not going to be visited upon " the third 
and fourth generation." The call has gone out for 
modern champions of our ancient champion; and 
literature has responded with a will. 

It takes long, however, to straighten out a na- 
tional misconception. The new literature has not 
yet had time to take hold of the popular imagination. 
But when it does, and when we cease to regard 
the Father of our Country as a demigod, and begin 
to love him as a man, then Washington's Birthdays 
everywhere will lose their stiff, perfunctory, blood- 
less character, and recover the inspiring, emotional 
quality of the early celebrations. 

R. H. S. 



THE DAY 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 1 

BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 

Welcome to the day returning, 

Dearer still as ages flow, 
While the torch of Faith is burning, 

Long as Freedom's altars glow ! 
See the hero whom it gave us 

Slumbering on a mother's breast; 
For the arm he stretched to save us 

Be its morn forever blest! 

Vain is empire's mad temptation! 

Not for him an earthly crown! 
He whose sword has freed a nation 

Strikes the offered scepter down. 
See the throneless conqueror seated, 

Ruler by a people's choice; 
See the patriot's task completed; 

Hear the Father's dying voice: 

" By the name that you inherit, 
By the sufferings you recall, 

Cherish the fraternal spirit; 
Love your country first of all ! 

1 By permission of the publishers, Houghton, MUHin & 
Co.. 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Listen not to idle questions 

If its bands may be untied; 
Doubt the patriot whose suggestions 

Strive a nation to divide." 

Father! we, whose ears have tingled 

With the discord notes of shame; 
We, whose sires their blood have mingled 

In the battle's thunder-flame, — 
Gathering, while this holy morning 

Lights the land from sea to sea, 
Hear thy counsel, heed thy warning; 

Trust us while we honor thee. 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER 

'Tis splendid to live so grandly 

That long after you are gone, 
The things you did are remembered, 

And recounted under the sun; 
To live so bravely and purely, 

That a nation stops on its way, 
And once a year, with banner and drum, 

Keeps its thought of your natal day. 

'Tis splendid to have a record, 
So white and free from stain 

That, held to the light, it shows no blot, 
Though tested and tried amain; 



THE DAY 

That age to age forever 

Repeats its story of love, 
And your birthday lives in a nation's heart, 

All other days above. 

And this is Washington's glory, 

A steadfast soul and true, 
Who stood for his country's honor 

When his country's days were few. 
And now when its days are many, 

And its flag of stars is flung 
To the breeze in defiant challenge, 

His name is on every tongue. 

Yes, it's splendid to live so bravely, 

To be so great and strong, 
That your memory is ever a tocsin 

To rally the foes of the wrong; 
To live so proudly and purely 

That your people pause in their way, 
And year by year, with banner and drum, 

Keep the thought of your natal day. 



THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON 

ANONYMOUS 

The birthday of the " Father of his Country ! " 
May it ever be freshly remembered by American 
hearts ! May it ever reawaken in them a filial ven- 



6 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

eration for his memory; ever rekindle the fires of 
patriotic regard for the country which he loved so 
well, to which he gave his youthful vigor and his 
youthful energy; to which he devoted his life in the 
maturity of his powers, in the field ; to which again 
he offered the counsels of his wisdom and his ex- 
perience as president of the convention that framed 
our Constitution; which he guided and directed 
while in the chair of state, and for which the last 
prayer of his earthly supplication was offered up, 
when it came the moment for him so well, and so 
grandly, and so calmly, to die. He was the first 
man of the time in which he grew. His memory is 
first and most sacred in our love, and ever hereafter, 
till the last drop of blood shall freeze in the last 
American heart, his name shall be a spell of power 
and of might. 

Yes, gentlemen, there is one personal, one vast 
felicity, which no man can share with him. It was 
the daily beauty and towering and matchless glory 
of his life which enabled him to create his country, 
and at the same time secure an undying love and 
regard from the whole American people. " The 
first in the hearts of his countrymen ! " Yes, first ! 
He has our first and most fervent love. Un- 
doubtedly there were brave and wise and good men 
before his day, in every colony. But the American 
nation, as a nation, I do not reckon to have begun 
before 1774, and the first love of that young Amer- 
ica was Washington. The first word she lisped was 
his name. Her earliest breath spoke it. It still is 
her proud ejaculation; and it will be the last gasp 



THE DAY 7 

of her expiring life ! Yes ; others of our great men 
have been appreciated — many admired by all — but 
him we love; him we all love. About and around 
him we call up no dissentient, discordant, and dis- 
satisfied elements — no sectional prejudice nor bias — 
no party, no creed, no dogma of politics. None of 
these shall assail him. Yes; when the storm of 
battle blows darkest and rages highest, the memory 
of Washington shall nerve every American arm and 
cheer every American heart. It shall relume that 
Promethean fire, that sublime flame of patriotism, 
that devoted love of country, which his words have 
commended, which his example has consecrated. 



WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

BY GEORGE HOWLAND 

Welcome, thou festal morn! 
Never be passed in scorn 

Thy rising sun, 
Thou day forever bright 
With Freedom's holy light, 
That gave the world the sight 

Of Washington. 

Unshaken 'mid the storm, 
Behold that noble form — 
That peerless one — 



8 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

With his protecting hand, 
Like Freedom's angel stand 
The guardian of our land, 
Our Washington. 

Then with each coming year, 
Whenever shall appear 

That natal sun, 
Will we attest the worth, 
Of one true man to earth, 
And celebrate the birth 

Of Washington. 

Traced there in lines of light, 
Where all pure rays unite, 

Obscured by none ; 
Brightest on history's page, 
Of any clime or age, 
As chieftain, man, and sage, 

Stands Washington. 

Name at which tyrants pale, 
And their proud legions quail, 

Their boasting done; 
While Freedom lifts her head, 
No longer filled with dread, 
Her sons to victory led 

By Washington. 

Now the true patriot see, 
The foremost of the free, 
The victory won. 



THE DAY 

In Freedom's presence bow, 
While sweetly smiling now, 
She wreaths the smiling brow 
Of Washington. 

Then with each coming year, 
Whenever shall appear 

That natal sun, 
Shall we attest the worth 
Of one true man to earth, 
And celebrate the birth 

Of Washington. 



WASHINGTON AND OUR SCHOOLS AND 
COLLEGES 

BY CHARLES W. ELIOT 

The brief phrase — the schools and colleges of 
the United States — is a formal and familiar one; 
but what imagination can grasp the infinitude of 
human affections, powers, and wills which it really 
comprises? But let us forget the outward things 
called schools and colleges, and summon up the 
human beings. Imagine the eight million children 
actually in attendance at the elementary schools of 
the country brought before your view. Each unit 
in this mass speaks of a glad birth, a brightened 
home, a mother's pondering heart, a father's care- 
ful joy. In all that multitude, every little heart 



io WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

bounds and every eye shines at the name of Wash- 
ington. 

The two hundred and fifty thousand boys and 
girls in the secondary schools are getting a fuller 
view of this incomparable character than the 
younger children can reach. They are old enough 
to understand his civil as well as his military 
achievements. They learn of his great part in that 
immortal Federal convention of 1787, of his in- 
estimable services in organizing and conducting 
through two Presidential terms the new Govern- 
ment, — services of which he alone was capable, — 
and of his firm resistance to misguided popular 
clamor. They see him ultimately victorious in war 
and successful in peace, but only through much ad- 
versity and many obstacles. 

Next, picture to yourselves the sixty thousand stu- 
dents in colleges and universities — selected youth of 
keen intelligence, wide reading, and high ambition. 
They are able to compare Washington with the 
greatest men of other times and countries, and to 
appreciate the unique quality of his renown. They 
can set him beside the heroes of romance and his- 
tory — beside David, Alexander, Pericles, Caesar, 
Saladin, Charlemagne, Gustavus Adolphus, John 
Hampden, William the Silent, Peter of Russia, and 
Frederick the Great, only to find him a nobler 
human type than any one of them, more complete 
in his nature, more happy in his cause, and more 
fortunate in the issues of his career. They are 
taught to see in him a soldier whose sword wrought 
only mercy and justice for mankind; a statesman 



THE DAY ii 

who steadied a remarkable generation of public men 
by his mental poise and exalted them by his single- 
ness of heart ; and a ruler whose exercise of power 
established for the time on earth a righteous gov- 
ernment by all and for all. 

And what shall I say on behalf of the three hun- 
dred and sixty thousand teachers of the United 
States? None of them are rich or famous; most 
of them are poor, retiring, and unnoticed; but it is 
they who are building a perennial monument to 
Washington. It is they who give him a million- 
tongued fame. They make him live again in the 
young hearts of successive generations, and fix his 
image there as the American ideal of a public 
servant. It is through the schools and colleges and 
the national literature that the heroes of any peo- 
ple win lasting renown ; and it is through these same 
• agencies that a nation is molded into the likeness of 
its heroes. 

The commemoration of any one great event in 
the life of Washington and of the United States 
is well, but it is nothing compared with the in- 
cessant memorial of him which the schools and 
colleges of the country maintain from generation 
to generation. What a reward is Washington's! 
What an influence is his and will be! One mind 
and will transfused by sympathetic instruction into 
millions; one life pattern for all public men, teach- 
ing what greatness is and what the pathway to un- 
dying fame ! 



12 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY, 

CROWN OUR WASHINGTON 

BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH 

Arise! 'tis the day of our Washington's glory; 

The garlands uplift for our liberties won. 
Oh sing in your gladness his echoing story, 

Whose sword swept for freedom the fields of the 
sun! 

Not with gold, nor with gems, 
But with evergreens vernal, 
And the banners of stars that the continent span, 
Crown, crown we the chief of the heroes eternal, 
Who lifted his sword for the birthright of man! 

He gave us a nation to make it immortal ; 

He laid down for Freedom the sword that he 
drew, 
And his faith leads us on through the uplifting 
portal 
Of the glories of peace and our destinies new. 
Not with gold, nor with gems, 
But with evergreens vernal, 
And the flags that the nations of liberty span, 
Crown, crown him the chief of the heroes eternal, 
Who laid down his sword for the birthright of man ! 

Lead, Face of the Future, serene in thy beauty, 
Till o'er the dead heroes the peace star shall 
gleam, 
Till Right shall be Might in the counsels of duty, 



THE DAY 13 

And the service of man be life's glory supreme. 

Not with gold, nor with gems, 

But with evergreens vernal, 
And the flags that the nations in brotherhood span, 
Crown, crown we the chief of the heroes eternal, 
Whose honor was gained by his service to man ! 

O Spirit of Liberty, sweet are thy numbers! 

The winds to thy banners their tribute shall bring 
While rolls the Potomac where Washington slum- 
bers, 
And his natal day comes with the angels of spring. 
We follow thy counsels, 
O hero eternal! 
To highest achievement thy school leads the van, 
And, crowning thy brow with the evergreen vernal, 
We pledge thee our all to the service of man! 



WASHINGTON-MONTH * 

BY WILL CARLETON 

February — February — 

How your moods and actions vary 

Or to seek or shun! 
Now a smile of sunlight lifting, 
Now in chilly snowflakes drifting; 
Now with icy shuttles creeping 

Silver webs are spun. 

1 By permission of the author. 



i 4 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Now, with leaden torrents leaping, 

Oceanward you run, 
Now with bells you blithely sing, 

'Neath the stars or sun; 
Now a blade of burdock bring 

To the suff'ring one; 
February — you are very 

Dear, when all is done : 
Many blessings rest above you, 
You one day (and so we love you) 

Gave us Washington. 



II 

EARLY YEARS 



A GLIMPSE OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTH- 
PLACE 

BY GRACE B. JOHNSON 

From The Christian Endeavor World 

Seldom visited and almost unknown is the Wake- 
field Farm in Virginia, the birthplace of our first 
President. Recent attempts have been made to 
popularize the place, but there is little to attract the 
ordinary traveler; and its distance from a city 
makes excursions impracticable. 

Lying on the Potomac River, about seventy miles 
below the city of Washington, one edge of the 
estate reaches down a steep, wooded bank to dip 
into the water, while, stretching back, it rambles on 
in grassy meadows and old stubble-fields to the 
corn-lands and orchards of the adjoining planta- 
tions. Skirting the land on one side is Pope's 
Creek, formerly Bridges' Creek, which in Wash- 
ington's time was used as the main approach to the 
estate. On this side there is an easy, undulating 
slope ; but this entrance has been abandoned. Only 
at high tide can small boats enter the creek, and an- 
other way had to be adopted. An iron pier nearly 
two miles away has been built, and is the landing- 
place for large and small craft. 

17 



i8 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

All is quiet here now. There is only the rustle of 
the leaves, the drowsy hum of insects, and the inter- 
rupted discourse of the preacher-bird in the clump 
of trees near which stood the first home of Wash- 
ington, to break the stillness on a summer day. No 
one lives here. Indeed, no one has lived here since 
the fire which destroyed the house and negro cabins, 
in Washington's boyhood. But here the baby life 
was spent, in the homestead founded by his great- 
grandfather, John Washington, who came from 
England in 1657. 

Only a heap of broken bits grown over with cat- 
nip showed the place of the great brick chimney the 
first time I visited the farm; and the second time 
these, too, were gone. Now a plain, graceful shaft, 
bearing the simple inscription, " Washington's 
Birthplace," and below, " Erected by the United 
States, A.D. 1895," marks the place. 

From the monument through the trees, can be 
seen the gleaming river, rippling its way silently to 
the bay, and over all rests the same brooding sense 
of peace and quietness which one feels at Mt. 
Vernon or at Arlington, the city of our nation's 
dead. 



EARLY YEARS 19 



SOMETHING OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S 
BOYHOOD 

ANONYMOUS 

From The Evangelist 

George Washington was born at a time when 
savagery had just departed from the country, leav- 
ing freshness and vigor behind. The Indian had 
scarcely left the woods, and the pirate the shore 
near his home. His grandfather had seen his neigh- 
bor lying tomahawked at his door-sill, and his father 
had helped to chase beyond the mountains the 
whooping savages that carried the scalps of his 
friends at their girdle. The year his brother was 
born, John Maynard's ship had sailed up the James 
River with the bloody head of Blackbeard hanging 
to the bowsprit. 

He had only one uncle, a brother Lawrence, and 
a cousin Augustine, all older than he, but the young- 
est of his older brothers was twelve years of age 
when George was born, while his cousin Augustine 
was only four years older, and his cousin Lawrence 
six years older than himself. When he was seven 
years old his sister Betty was a little lass of six. 
Two brothers, Samuel and John, were nearing their 
fourth and fifth birthdays. Charles, his baby 
brother, was still in his nurse's arms. Early the 
shadow of death crossed his boyish path, for his 
baby sister, Mildred, born soon after he was seven, 
died before he was nine. 



20 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

The first playmate Washington had, out of his 
own immediate family, was another Lawrence 
Washington, a very distant cousin, who lived at 
Chotauk on the Potomac, and who, with his brother, 
Robert Washington, early won Washington's re- 
gard, and kept it through life. When Washington 
made his will he remembered them, writing, " to the 
acquaintances and friends of my juvenile years, 
Lawrence Washington and Robert Washington, I 
give my other two gold-headed canes having my 
arms engraved on them." 

It was at Chotauk, with Lai and Bob Washing- 
ton, that George Washington first met with traffic 
between the old world and the new. There was no 
money used except tobacco notes, which passed 
among merchants in London and Amsterdam as 
cash. Foreign ships brought across the ocean goods 
that the Virginians needed, and the captains sold 
the goods for these tobacco notes. Much of Wash- 
ington's time was spent with these boys, and when 
he grew old he recalled the young eyes of the Cho- 
tauk lads, as they, with him, had stood on the river- 
bank vainly trying to see clearly some object beyond 
vision, and in memory of the time he wrote in his 
will, " To each I leave one of my spy-glasses which 
constituted part of my equipage during the late 
war." 

Of Washington's first school there is no record or 
tradition other than that gathered by Parson Weems. 
He says : " The first place of education to which 
George was ever sent was a little old field school 
kept by one of his father's tenants, named Hobby, 



EARLY YEARS 21 

an honest, poor old man, who acted in the double 
capacity of sexton and schoolmaster. Of his skill 
as a gravedigger tradition is silent; but for a 
teacher of youth his qualifications were certainly of 
the humbler sort, making what is generally called 
an A, B, C schoolmaster. While at school under 
Mr. Hobby he used to divide his playmates into 
parties and armies. One of them was called the 
French and the other American. A big boy named 
William Bustle commanded the former; George 
commanded the latter, and every day with cornstalks 
for muskets and calabashes [gourds] for drums, the 
two armies would turn out and march and fight." 



WASHINGTON'S TRAINING 

BY CHARLES WENTWORTH UPHAM 

Among the mountain passes of the Blue Ridge 
and the Alleghanies, a youth is seen employed in the 
manly and invigorating occupation of a surveyor, 
and awakening the admiration of the backwoods- 
men and savage chieftains by the strength and en- 
durance of his frame and the resolution and energy 
of his character. In his stature and conformation 
he is a noble specimen of a man. In the various ex- 
ercises of muscular power, on foot, or in the saddle, 
he excels all competitors. His admirable physical 
traits are in perfect accordance with the properties 



22 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

of his mind and heart ; and over all, crowning all, is 
a beautiful, and, in one so strong, a strange dignity 
of manner, and of mien — a calm seriousness, a 
sublime self-control, which at once compels the ven- 
eration, attracts the confidence, and secures the 
favor of all who behold him. That youth is the 
Leader whom Heaven is preparing to conduct Amer- 
ica through her approaching trial. 

As we see him voluntarily relinquishing the enjoy- 
ments, luxuries, and ease of the opulent refinement 
in which he was born and bred, and choosing the 
perils and hardships of the wilderness; as we fol- 
low him fording swollen streams, climbing rugged 
mountains, breasting the forest storms, wading 
through snowdrifts, sleeping in the open air, living 
upon the coarse food of hunters and of Indians, we 
trace with devout admiration the divinely appointed 
education he was receiving to enable him to meet 
and endure the fatigues, exposures, and privations 
of the War of Independence. 

Soon he was called to a more public sphere of 
action ; and we again follow him in his romantic ad- 
ventures as he travels the far-off wilderness, a spe- 
cial messenger to the French commander on the 
Ohio, and afterwards, when he led forth the troops 
of Virginia in the same direction, or accompanied 
the ill-starred Braddock to the blood-stained banks 
of the Monongahela. Everywhere we see the hand 
of God conducting him into danger, that he might 
extract from it the wisdom of an experience not 
otherwise to be obtained, and develop those heroic 
qualities by which alone danger and difficulty can be 



EARLY YEARS 23 

surmounted; but all the while covering him with a 
shield. 

When we think of him, at midnight and in mid- 
winter, thrown from a frail raft into the deep and 
angry waters of a wide and rushing Western river, 
thus separated from his only companion through the 
wilderness with no aid for miles and leagues about 
him, buffeting the rapid current and struggling 
through driving cakes of ice; when we behold the 
stealthy savage, whose aim against all other marks 
is unerring, pointing his rifle deliberately at him, 
and firing over and over again; when we see him 
riding through showers of bullets on Braddock's 
fatal field, and reflect that never, during his whole 
life, was he ever wounded, or even touched by a 
hostile force — do we not feel that he was guarded 
by an unseen hand, warding off every danger ? No 
peril by flood or field was permitted to extinguish 
a life consecrated to the hopes of humanity and to 
the purposes of Heaven. 

For more than sixteen years he rested from his 
warfare, amid the shades of Mount Vernon; ripen- 
ing his mind by reading and reflection, increasing 
his knowledge of practical affairs, entering into the 
whole experience of a citizen at home and on his 
farm, and as a delegate to the Colonial Assembly. 
When, at last, the war broke out, and the unanimous 
voice of the Continental Congress invested him, as 
the exigency required, with almost unbounded 
authority, as their Commander-in-Chief, he blended, 
although still in the prime of his life, in the mature 
bloom of his manhood, the attributes of a sage with 



24 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

those of a hero. A more perfectly fitted and fur- 
nished character has never appeared on the theater 
of human action than when, reining up his war- 
horse beneath the majestic and venerable elm, still 
standing at the entrance of the Watertown road to 
Cambridge, George Washington unsheathed his 
sword and assumed the command of the gathered 
armies of American Liberty. 



WASHINGTON AS HE LOOKED 
From The Christian Endeavor World 

According to Captain Mercer, the following de- 
scribes Washington when he took his seat in the 
House of Burgesses in 1759: 

He is as straight as an Indian, measuring six feet two 
inches in his stockings, and weighing one hundred and 
seventy-five pounds. His head is well shaped, though not 
large, and is gracefully poised on a superb neck, with a 
large, and straight rather than prominent nose; blue-gray 
penetrating eyes, which are widely separated and over- 
hung by heavy brows. A pleasing, benevolent, though com- 
manding countenance, dark-brown hair, features regular 
and placid, with all the muscles under control, with a large 
mouth, generally firmly closed. 

Houdon's bust accords with this description. 



Ill 

THE GENERAL 



WASHINGTON IS APPOINTED COM- 
MANDER-IN-CHIEF 1 

BY SYDNEY GEORGE FISHER 

On the 16th of June, the day before the battle of 
Bunker Hill, the Congress, having accepted Massa- 
chusetts' gift of the army before Boston, gave the 
command of it to Colonel George Washington, of 
Virginia, and made him a general and commander- 
in-chief of all the forces of the patriot cause. 

Hancock, it is said, had ambitions in that direc- 
tion, and was somewhat disappointed at the choice. 
But the fitness of Washington for the office was 
generally admitted as soon as John Adams urged his 
appointment. He would conciliate the moderate 
patriots, for he had clung to the old arguments as 
long as possible, and refrained from forcing events. 
If substantial independence of Parliament and the 
Ministry could be secured, he was willing to allow 
the King a vague or imaginary headship until in the 
course of years that excrescence should slough 
away. 

Many were inclined to think that a New Eng- 
land general should command the New England 

^rom "The Struggle for American Independence," by 
Sydney George Fisher. Copyright by J. B. Lippincott & 
Co., Philadelphia. 

27 



28 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

army that was gathered before Boston; but they 
were obliged to admit that the appointment of a 
general from Virginia, the most populous and pros- 
perous of the colonies, would tend to draw the 
Southern interest to the patriot cause. 

Washington was forty-three years old, which was 
the right age for entering upon the supreme com- 
mand in what might be a long war. He had distin- 
guished himself by helping to rescue Braddock's de- 
feated army in 1755, and he had taken a more or 
less prominent part in the subsequent campaigns 
which ended in driving the French out of Canada. 
This military education and experience seemed 
slight, and not equal to that of the British officers 
who would be opposed to him. But it was Amer- 
ican experience, no colonist was any better equipped, 
and he was of a larger intelligence than Putnam, 
Ward, and other Americans who had served in the 
French War. 

His strong character and personality had im- 
pressed themselves upon his fellow-delegates in the 
Congress. It was this impressive personality which 
made his career and brought to him grave responsi- 
bility without effort on his part to seek office or 
position. When he was only twenty-one the gov- 
ernor of Virginia had sent him through the wilder- 
ness to interview the French commander near Lake 
Erie, a mission which required the hardihood of 
the hunter and some of the shrewd intelligence of 
the diplomat. 

But much to the surprise of travelers and visitors, 
Washington never appeared to be a brilliant man. 



THE GENERAL 29 

He was always a trifle reserved, and this habit grew 
on him with years. His methods of work were 
homely and painstaking, reminding us somewhat of 
Lincoln; and the laborious carefulness of his mili- 
tary plans seemed to European critics to imply a 
lack of genius. 

But it was difficult to judge him by European 
standards, because the conditions of the warfare he 
conducted were totally unlike anything in Europe. 
He never commanded a real army with well-organ- 
ized departments and good equipment. His troops 
were usually barefooted, half-starved, and for sev- 
eral years incapable of performing the simplest 
parade manoeuvre. Brilliant movements, except on 
a small scale, as at Princeton, were rarely within his 
reach; and large complicated movements were im- 
possible because he had not the equipment of officers 
and organization for handling large bodies of men 
spread out over a great extent of country. He was 
obliged to adopt the principle of concentration and 
avoid making detachments or isolated movements 
that could be cut off by the British. To some of his 
contemporaries it therefore seemed that his most 
striking ability lay in conciliating local habits and 
prejudices, harmonizing discordant opinions, and 
holding together an army which seemed to the Brit- 
ish always on the eve of disbanding. 

He reasoned out, however, in his own way, the 
peculiar needs of every military position, and how 
he did this will appear more clearly as our nar- 
rative progresses. He often spoke of his own lack 
of military experience, as well as of the lack of it 



3 o WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

in the officers about him; and this seems to have 
led him to study every situation like a beginner, 
with exhaustive care, consulting with everybody, 
calling councils of war on every possible occasion, 
and reasoning out his plans with minute carefulness. 
This method, which his best friends sometimes ridi- 
culed, was in striking contrast to the method of one 
of his own officers, General Greene, and also to the 
method of Grant in the Civil War. Both Greene 
and Grant dispensed altogether with laborious con- 
sultations and councils of war. 

But the laborious method was well suited to 
Washington, whose mind was never satisfied unless 
it could strike a balance among a great mass of 
arguments and details which must be obtained from 
others, and not through his own imagination. He 
liked to reserve his decision until the last moment, 
and this trait- was sometimes mistaken for weak- 
ness. His preparedness and devotion to details re- 
mind us of Napoleon. His cautious, balancing, 
weighing habit, developed by lifelong practice, runs 
through all his letters and every act of his life, ap- 
pearing in some of the great events of his career as 
a superb and masterful equipoise. It became very 
impressive even to those who ridiculed it; it could 
inspire confidence through years of disaster and de- 
feat; and it enabled him to grasp the general 
strategy of the war so thoroughly that no military 
critic has ever detected him in a mistake. 

As a soldier he fought against distinguished Brit- 
ish officers four pitched battles — Long Island, Bran- 
dy wine, Germantown, and Monmouth; in the first 



THE GENERAL 31 

three of which he was defeated, and the last was a 
draw. He conducted two sieges — Boston and York- 
town — in both of which he was successful ; and he 
destroyed two outposts — Trenton and Princeton — 
in a manner generally regarded as so brilliant and 
effective that he saved the patriot cause from its first 
period of depression. His characteristics as a sol- 
dier were farseeing judgment and circumspection, a 
certain long-headedness, as it might be called, and 
astonishing ability to recover from and ignore a de- 
feat. In his pitched battles, like Long Island and 
Brandywine, he knew that defeat was probable, and 
he prepared for it. 1 

He was compelled to act so much on the defensive, 
and the British methods were so slow, that his 
activities in the field were not numerous when we 
consider that he was in command for seven years. 
The greater part of his time and energy was em- 
ployed in building up the cause by mild, balanced, 
but wonderfully effective arguments; reconciling 
animosities by tactful precautions; and by the con- 
fidence his personality inspired preventing the army 
from disbanding. A large part of this labor was put 
forth in writing letters of wonderful beauty and 
perfection in the literary art, when we consider the 
end they were to accomplish. Complete editions of 
his writings of this sort usually fill a dozen or more 

1 Limiting by his foresight the extent of his loss, guarding 
by his disposition security of retreat, and repairing with 
celerity the injury sustained, his relative condition was 
often ameliorated, although victory adorned the brow of 
his adversary. — Lee, Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 237. 



32 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

large volumes; and there have been few if any great 
generals of the world who have accomplished so 
much by writing, or who have been such consum- 
mate masters of language. 

Sufficient care has not always been taken to dis- 
tinguish between the different periods of his life. 
He aged rapidly at the close of the Revolution ; his 
reserved manner and a certain " asperity of tem- 
per," as Hamilton called it, greatly increased; and 
some years afterwards, when President, he had be- 
come a very silent and stiffly formal man, far dif- 
ferent from the young soldier who, in the prime of 
life, drew his sword beneath the old elm at Cam- 
bridge to take command of the patriot army. 

The Virginians of his time appear to have had oc- 
cupations and social intercourse which educated 
them in a way we are unable to imitate. Washing- 
ton in his prime was a social and convivial man, fond 
of cards, fine horses, and fox-hunting. Although 
not usually credited with book learning, his letters 
and conduct in the Revolution show that he was 
quite familiar with the politics of foreign countries 
and the general information of his time. We have 
not yet learned to appreciate the full force of his 
intellect and culture. 



THE GENERAL 33 

WASHINGTON AT TRENTON 1 
The Battle Monument, October 19, 1893 

BY RICHARD WATSON GILDER 

Since ancient Time began 
Ever on some great soul God laid an infinite 
burden — 
The weight of all this world, the hopes of man. 
Conflict and pain, and fame immortal are his 
guerdon ! 

And this the unfaltering token 

Of him, the Deliverer — what though tempests 
beat, 
Though all else fail, though bravest ranks be broken, 

He stands unscared, alone, nor ever knows defeat. 

Such was that man of men ; 

And if are praised all virtues, every fame 
Most noble, highest, purest — then, ah! then, 

Upleaps in every heart the name none needs to 
name. 

Ye who defeated, 'whelmed, 

Betray the sacred cause, let go the trust; 
Sleep, weary, while the vessel drifts unhelmed; 

Here see in triumph rise the hero from the dust! 

1 By permission of the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co. 



34 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

All ye who fight forlorn 

'Gainst fate and failure ; ye who proudly cope 
With evil high enthroned ; all ye who scorn 

Life from Dishonor's hand, here take new heart 
of hope. 

Here know how Victory borrows 

For the brave soul a front as of disaster, 

And in the bannered East what glorious morrows 
For all the blackness of the night speed surer, 
faster. 

Know by this pillared sign 

For what brief while the powers of earth and hell 
Can war against the spirit of truth divine, 

Or can against the heroic heart of man prevail. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

From " Washington and the Generals of the 
Revolution " 

It is a truth, illustrated in daily experience, and 
yet rarely noted or acted upon, that, in all that con- 
cerns the appreciation of personal character or abil- 
ity, the instinctive impressions of a community are 
quicker in their action, more profoundly appre- 
ciant, and more reliable, than the intellectual per- 
ceptions of the ablest men in the community. Upon 
all those subjects that are of moral apprehension, 
society seems to possess an intelligence of its own, 



THE GENERAL 35 

infinitely sensitive in its delicacy, and almost con- 
clusive in the certainty of its determinations ; in- 
direct, and unconscious in its operation, yet un- 
shunnable in sagacity, and as strong and confident as 
nature itself. The highest and finest qualities of 
human judgment seem to be in commission among 
the nation, or the race. It is by such a process, that 
whenever a true hero appears among mankind, the 
recognition of his character, by the general sense 
of humanity, is instant and certain : the belief of the 
chief priests and rulers of mind, follows later, or 
comes not at all. The perceptions of a public are 
as subtly-sighted, as its passions are blind. It sees, 
and feels, and knows the excellence, which it can 
neither understand, nor explain, nor vindicate. 
These involuntary opinions of people at large ex- 
plain themselves, and are vindicated by events, and 
form at last the constants of human understanding. 
A character of the first order of greatness, such as 
seems to pass out of the limits and course of 
ordinary life, often lies above the ken of intellectual 
judgment; but its merits and its infirmities never 
escape the sleepless perspicacity of the common sen- 
timent, which no novelty of form can surprise, and 
no mixture of qualities can perplex. The mind — 
the logical faculty — comprehends a subject, when it 
can trace in it the same elements, or relations, which 
it is familiar with elsewhere: if it finds but a faint 
analogy of form or substance, its decision is em- 
barrassed. But this other instinct seems to become 
subtler, and more rapid, and more absolute in con- 
viction, at the line where reason begins to falter. 



36 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Take the case of Shakespeare. His surpassing 
greatness was never acknowledged by the learned 
until the nation had ascertained and settled it as a 
foregone and questionless conclusion. Even now, 
to the most sagacious mind of this time, the real 
ground and evidence of its own assurance of 
Shakespeare's supremacy, is the universal, deep, im- 
movable conviction of it in the public feeling. There 
have been many acute essays upon his minor char- 
acteristics ; but intellectual criticism has never grap- 
pled with Shakespearian art, in its entireness and 
grandeur, and probably it never will. We know not 
now wherein his greatness consists. We cannot 
demonstrate it. There is less indistinctness in the 
merit of less eminent authors. Those things which 
are not doubts to our consciousness, are yet mys- 
teries to our mind. And if this is true of literary 
art, which is so much within the sphere of reflection, 
it may be expected to find more striking illustration 
in great practical and public moral characters. 

These considerations occur naturally to the mind 
in contemplating the fame of Washington. An at- 
tentive examination of the whole subject, and of all 
that can contribute to the formation of a sound 
opinion, results in the belief that General Wash- 
ington's mental abilities illustrate the very highest 
type of greatness. His mind, probably, was one of 
the very greatest that was ever given to mortality. 
Yet it is impossible to establish that position by a 
direct analysis of his character, or conduct, or pro- 
ductions. When we look at the incidents or the re- 
sults of that great career — when we contemplate the 



THE GENERAL 37 

qualities by which it is marked from its beginning 
to its end — the foresight which never was surprised, 
the judgment which nothing could deceive, the wis- 
dom whose resources were incapable of exhaustion 
— combined with a spirit as resolute in its official 
duties as it was moderate in its private pretensions, 
as indomitable in its public temper as it was gentle 
in its personal tone — we are left in wonder and rev- 
erence. But when we would enter into the recesses 
of that mind — when we would discriminate upon its 
construction, and reason upon its operations — when 
we would tell how it was composed, and why it ex- 
celled — we are entirely at fault. The processes of 
Washington's understanding are entirely hidden 
from us. What came from it, in counsel or in ac- 
tion, was the life and glory of his country; what 
went on within it, is shrouded in impenetrable con- 
cealment. Such elevation in degree, of wisdom, 
amounts almost to a change of kind, in nature, and 
detaches his intelligence from the sympathy of ours. 
We cannot see him as he was, because we are not 
like him. The tones of the mighty bell were heard 
with the certainty of Time itself, and with a force 
that vibrates still upon the air of life, and will 
vibrate forever. But the clock-work, by which they 
were regulated and given forth, we can neither see 
nor understand. In fact, his intellectual abilities did 
not exist in an analytical and separated form ; but in 
a combined and concrete state. They " moved alto- 
gether when they moved at all." They were in no 
degree speculative, but only practical. They could 
not act at all in the region of imagination, but only 



3 3 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

upon the field of reality. The sympathies of his 
intelligence dwelt exclusively in the national being 
and action. Its interests and energies were ab- 
sorbed in them. He was nothing out of that sphere, 
because he was everything there. The extent to 
which he was identified with the country is unex- 
ampled in the relations of individual men to the 
community. During the whole period of his life he 
was the thinking part of the nation. He was its 
mind; it was his image and illustration. If we 
would classify and measure him, it must be with na- 
tions, and not with individuals. 

This extraordinary nature of Washington's 
capacities — this impossibility of analyzing and un- 
derstanding the elements and methods of his wis- 
dom — have led some persons to doubt whether, in- 
tellectually, he was of great superiority; but the 
public — the community — never doubted of the 
transcendant eminence of Washington's abilities. 
From the first moment of his appearance as the 
chief, the recognition of him, from one end of the 
country to the other, as THE MAN — the leader, the 
counselor, the infallible in suggestion and in con- 
duct — was immediate and universal. From that 
moment to the close of the scene, the national con- 
fidence in his capacity was as spontaneous, as en- 
thusiastic, as immovable, as it was in his integrity. 
Particular persons, affected by the untoward course 
of events, sometimes questioned his sufficiency; but 
the nation never questioned it, nor would allow it to 
be questioned. Neither misfortune, nor disappoint- 
ment, nor accidents, nor delay, nor the protracted 



THE GENERAL 39 

gloom of years, could avail to disturb the public trust 
in him. It was apart from circumstances; it was 
beside the action of caprice; it was beyond all 
visionary, and above all changeable feelings. It was 
founded on nothing extraneous; not upon what he 
had said or done, but upon what he was. They 
saw something in the man, which gave them assur- 
ance of a nature and destiny of the highest elevation 
— something inexplicable, but which inspired a com- 
plete satisfaction. We feel that this reliance was 
wise and right; but why it was felt, or why it was 
right, we are as much to seek as those who came un- 
der the direct impression of his personal presence. 
It is not surprising, that the world recognizing in 
this man a nature and a greatness which philosophy 
cannot explain, should revere him almost to religion. 
The distance and magnitude of those objects 
which are too far above us to be estimated directly 
— such as stars — are determined by their parallax. 
By some process of that kind we may form an ap- 
proximate notion of Washington's greatness. We 
may measure him against the great events in which 
he moved ; and against the great men, among whom, 
and above whom, his figure stood like a tower. It 
is agreed that the War of American Independence is 
one of the most exalted, and honorable, and difficult 
achievements related in history. Its force was con- 
tributed by many; but its grandeur was derived 
from Washington. His character and wisdom gave 
unity, and dignity, and effect to the irregular, and 
often divergent enthusiasm of others. His energy 
combined the parts; his intelligence guided the 



4 o WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

whole: his perseverance, and fortitude, and resolu- 
tion, were the inspiration and support of all. In 
looking back over that period, his presence seems to 
fill the whole scene; his influence predominates 
throughout; his character is reflected from every- 
thing. Perhaps nothing less than his immense 
weight of mind could have kept the national sys- 
tem, at home, in that position which it held, im- 
movably, for seven years; perhaps nothing but the 
august respectability which his demeanor threw 
around the American cause abroad, would have in- 
duced a foreign nation to enter into an equal al- 
liance with us upon terms that contributed in a 
most important degree to our final success, or 
would have caused Great Britain to feel that no 
great indignity was suffered in admitting the claim 
to national existence of a people who had such a 
representative as Washington. What but the most 
eminent qualities of mind and feeling — discretion 
superhuman — readiness of invention, and dexterity 
of means, equal to the most desperate affairs — en- 
durance, self-control, regulated ardor, restrained 
passion, caution mingled with boldness, and all the 
contrarieties of moral excellence — could have ex- 
panded the life of an individual into a career such 
as this ? 

If we compare him with the great men who were 
his contemporaries throughout the nation ; in an age 
of extraordinary personages, Washington was un- 
questionably the first man of the time in ability. 
Review the correspondence of General Washing- 
ton — that sublime monument of intelligence and in- 



THE GENERAL 41 

tegrity — scrutinize the public history and the public 
men of that era, and you will find that in all the 
wisdom that was accomplished or was attempted, 
Washington was before every man in his sug- 
gestions of the plan, and beyond every one in the 
extent to which he contributed to its adoption. In 
the field, all the able generals acknowledged his su- 
periority, and looked up to him with loyalty, reli- 
ance, and reverence; the others, who doubted his 
ability, or conspired against his sovereignty, il- 
lustrated, in their own conduct, their incapacity to 
be either his judges or his rivals. In the state, 
Adams, Jay, Rutledge, Pinckney, Morris — these are 
great names; but there is not one whose wisdom 
does not vail to his. His superiority was felt by all 
these persons, and was felt by Washington himself, 
as a simple matter of fact, as little a subject of ques- 
tion, or a cause of vanity, as the eminence of his per- 
sonal stature. His appointment as commander-in- 
chief was the result of no design on his part; and of 
no efforts on the part of his friends; it seemed to 
take place spontaneously. He moved into the posi- 
tion, because there was a vacuum which no other 
could supply : in it, he was not sustained by govern- 
ment, by a party, or by connections; he sustained 
himself ; and then he sustained everything else. He 
sustained Congress against the army, and the army 
against the injustice of Congress. The brightest 
mind among his contemporaries was Hamilton's; a 
character which cannot be contemplated without fre- 
quent admiration, and constant affection. His tal- 
ents took the form of genius, which Washington's 



42 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

did not. But active, various, and brilliant, as the 
faculties of Hamilton were, whether viewed in the 
precocity of youth, or in the all-accomplished ele- 
gance of maturer life — lightning-quick as his in- 
telligence was to see through every subject that 
came before it, and vigorous as it was in construct- 
ing the argumentation by which other minds were 
to be led, as upon a shapely bridge, over the ob- 
scure depths across which his had flashed in a mo- 
ment — fertile and sound in schemes, ready in ac- 
tion, splendid in display, as he was — nothing is more 
obvious and certain than that when Mr. Hamilton 
approached Washington, he came into the presence 
of one who surpassed him in the extent, in the com- 
prehension, the elevation, the sagacity, the force, 
and the ponderousness of his mind, as much as he 
did in the majesty of his aspect and the grandeur of 
his step. The genius of Hamilton was a flower, 
which gratifies, surprises, and enchants; the in- 
telligence of Washington was a stately tree, which 
in the rarity and true dignity of its beauty is as 
superior as it is in its dimensions. 



VALLEY FORGE 

BY HENRY ARMITT BROWN 

From Centennial Address delivered at Valley Forge, 
June 19, 1878 

The century that has gone by has changed the 
face of Nature, and wrought a revolution in the 



THE GENERAL 43 

habits of mankind. We to-day behold the dawn of 
an extraordinary age. Man has advanced with such 
astounding speed, that, breathless, we have reached 
a moment when it seems as if distance had been an- 
nihilated, time made as nought, the invisible seen, 
the intangible felt, and the impossible accomplished. 
Already we knock at the door of a new century, 
which promises to be infinitely brighter and more 
enlightened and happier than this. 

We know that we are more fortunate than our 
fathers. We believe that our children shall be hap- 
pier than we. We know that this century is more 
enlightened than the past. We believe that the time 
to come will be better and more glorious than this. 
We think, we believe, we hope, but we do not know. 
Across that threshold we may not pass ; behind that 
veil we may not penetrate. It may be vouchsafed 
us to behold it, wonderingly, from afar, but never to 
enter in. It matters not. The age in which we live 
is but a link in the endless and eternal chain. Our 
lives are like sands upon the shore ; our voices, like 
the breath of this summer breeze that stirs the leaf 
for a moment, and is forgotten. The last survivor 
of this mighty multitude shall stay but a little while. 
The endless generations are advancing to take our 
places as we fall. For them, as for us, shall the 
years march by in the sublime procession of the 
ages. 

And here, in this place of sacrifice, in this vale of 
humiliation, in this valley of the shadow of death, 
out of which the life of America rose regenerate and 
free, let us believe, with an abiding faith, that to 



44 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

them union will seem as dear, and liberty as sweet, 
and progress as glorious, as they were to our 
fathers and are to you and me, and that the institu- 
tions which have made us happy, preserved by the 
virtue of our children, shall bless the remotest gen- 
eration of the time to come. And unto Him who 
holds in the hollow of His hand the fate of na- 
tions, and yet marks the sparrow's fall, let us lift up 
our hearts this day, and unto His eternal care com- 
mend ourselves, our children, and our country. 



WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE 

BY CANON R. G. SUTHERLAND 

With his lean, ragged levies, undismayed, 
He crouched among the vigilant hills ; a show 
To the disdainful, heaven-blinded foe. 

Unlauded, unsupported, disobeyed, 

Thwarted, maligned, conspired against, betrayed — 
Yet nothing could unheart him. Wouldst thou 

know 
His secret? There, in that thicket on the snow, 

Washington knelt before his God, and prayed. 

Close in their lair for perilous months and days 
He held in leash his wolves, grim, shelterless, 

Gaunt, hunger-bitten, stanch to the uttermost; 
Then, when the hour was come for hardiness 
Rallied, and rushed them on the reeling host; 
And Monmouth planted Yorktown's happy bays ! 



THE GENERAL 45 

A FRENCHMAN'S ESTIMATE OF WASH- 
INGTON IN 1781 

BY CLAUDE C. ROBIN 

From Magazine of American History. 

The following extract from a letter written by 
Abbe Robin, chaplain in the French army in Amer- 
ica, and bearing date " Camp of Phillip sburg, August 
4, 1781," a few weeks after his arrival in this coun- 
try, is very suggestive. This letter was the first of 
a series of thirteen letters from the Abbe while in 
America, which were published in Paris in 1782. 
He writes: 

I have seen General Washington, that most 
singular man — the soul and support of one of the 
greatest revolutions that has ever happened, or can 
happen. I fixed my eyes upon him with that keen 
attention which the sight of a great man always in- 
spires. We naturally entertain a secret hope of dis- 
covering in the features of such illustrious persons 
some traces of that genius which distinguishes them 
from, and elevates them above, their fellow mortals. 

Perhaps the exterior of no man was better cal- 
culated to gratify these expectations than that of 
General Washington. He is of a tall and noble 
stature, well proportioned, a fine, cheerful, open 
countenance, a simple and modest carriage ; and his 
whole mien has something in it that interests the 
French, the Americans, and even enemies them- 



46 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

selves, in his favor. Placed in a military view, at 
the head of a nation where each individual has a 
share in the supreme legislative authority, and where 
coercive laws are yet in a degree destitute of vigor, 
where the climate and manners can add but little to 
their energy, where the spirit of party, private in- 
terest, slowness and national indolence, slacken, sus- 
pend, and overthrow the best concerted measures; 
although so situated he has found out a method of 
keeping his troops in the most absolute subordina- 
tion; making them rivals in praising him; fearing 
him when he is silent, and retaining their full con- 
fidence in him after defeats and disgrace. His 
reputation has, at length, arisen to a most brilliant 
height; and he may now grasp at the most un- 
bounded power, without provoking envy or exciting 
suspicion. He has ever shown himself superior to 
fortune, and in the most trying adversity has dis- 
covered resources until then unknown : and, as if his 
abilities only increased and dilated at the prospect of 
difficulty, he is never better supplied than when he 
seems destitute of everything, nor have his arms 
ever been so fatal to his enemies, as at the very in- 
stant when they thought they had crushed him for- 
ever. It is his to excite a spirit of heroism and 
enthusiasm in a people who are by nature very little 
susceptible of it; to gain over the respect and 
homage of those whose interest it is to refuse it, 
and to execute his plans and projects by means un- 
known even to those who are his instruments ; he is 
intrepid in dangers, yet never seeks them but when 
the good of his country demands it, preferring 



THE GENERAL 47 

rather to temporize and act upon the defensive, be- 
cause he knows such a mode of conduct best suits 
the genius and circumstances of the nation, and all 
that he and they have to expect, depends upon time, 
fortitude, and patience; he is frugal and sober in 
regard to himself, but profuse in the public cause; 
like Peter the Great, he has by defeats conducted 
his army to victory ; and like Fabius, but with fewer 
resources and more difficulty, he has conquered with- 
out fighting, and saved his country. 

Such are the ideas that arise in the mind at the 
sight of this great man, in examining the events in 
which he had a share, or in listening to those whose 
duty obliges them to be near his person, and conse- 
quently best display his character. In all these ex- 
tensive States they consider him in the light of a 
beneficent god, dispensing peace and happiness 
around him. Old men, women, and children press 
about him when he accidentally passes along, and 
think themselves happy, once in their lives, to have 
seen him — they follow him through the towns with 
torches, and celebrate his arrival by public illumina- 
tions. The Americans, that cool and sedate people, 
who in the midst of their most trying difficulties, 
have attended only to the directions and impulses 
of plain method and common sense, are roused, ani- 
mated, and inflamed at the very mention of his 
name : and the first songs that sentiment or gratitude 
has dictated, have been to celebrate General Wash- 
ington. 



IV 
THE PRESIDENT 



WASHINGTON AND THE CONSTITUTION 

BY JOHN M. HARLAN 

It is the concurring judgment of political thinkers, 
that no event in all the history of the Anglo-Saxon 
race has been more far-reaching in its consequences 
than the organization of the present Government of 
the United States. And it is in every sense ap- 
propriate to connect the name of Washington with 
the Constitution which brought that government into 
existence. It is appropriate because his splendid 
leadership of the Revolutionary armies made it pos- 
sible to establish upon this continent a government 
resting upon the consent of the governed, yet strong 
enough to maintain its existence and authority when- 
ever assailed. 

But it is especially appropriate for the reason that 
he was among the first of the great men of the 
Revolutionary period to discern the inherent defects 
in the articles of confederation ; and but for his ef- 
forts to bring about a more perfect union of the 
people, the existing Constitution, it is believed, 
would not have been accepted by the requisite num- 
ber of States. He was indeed the pioneer of the 
Union established by that Constitution. Of the ac- 
curacy of these statements there is abundant 
evidence, 

51 



52 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

We are only in the spring-time of our national 
life, and yet we have realized all that Washington 
could possibly have anticipated from the creation of 
the present Government. What more could be de- 
sired in a system of government than is secured in 
the existing organizations of the General and State 
governments with their respective powers so ad- 
mirably adjusted and distributed as to draw from 
Gladstone the remark that the American Constitu- 
tion was " the most wonderful work ever struck off 
at one time by the brain and purpose of man " ? 

Despite the fears of many patriotic statesmen at 
the time of the adoption of the Constitution, that 
that instrument would destroy the liberties of the 
people, every genuine American rejoices in the full- 
ness of a grateful heart that we have a government 
under which the humblest person in our midst has 
a feeling of safety and repose not vouchsafed to the 
citizen or subject of any other country; with powers 
ample for the protection of the life of the nation and 
adequate for all purposes of a general nature, yet so 
restricted by the law of its creation in the exercise of 
its powers, that it cannot rightfully encroach upon 
those reserved to the States or to the people. 

I will not allude to or discuss particular theories 
of constitutional construction, but I may say, and I 
am glad that it can be truthfully said, that the mass 
of the people concur in holding that only by main- 
taining the just powers of both the National and 
State governments can we preserve in their integrity 
the fundamental principles of American liberty. 



THE PRESIDENT 53 

WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION 1 — 
1789-1797 

BY EDWARD S. ELLIS 

Washington's Patriotism. — Washington would 
have preferred to spend the remainder of his life 
in his tranquil home at Mount Vernon, but his patri- 
otism would not allow him to disregard the call of 
his country. He had so little money at the time, 
that his home was threatened by the sheriff, and he 
had to borrow funds with which to pay his most 
pressing debts. 

Washington's Inauguration. — The President- 
elect left Mount Vernon on April 16, and the entire 
journey to New York was a continual ovation. He 
received honors at almost every step of the way, and 
was welcomed to the nation's capital by the joyous 
thousands who felt that no reward could be too great 
for the illustrious patriot that had enshrined him- 
self forever in the hearts of his loving countrymen. 
The inauguration ceremonies took place April 30, in 
Federal Hall, on the present site of the sub-treas- 
ury building. Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of 
New York administered the oath, in a balcony of 
the Senate chamber, in full view of the vast con- 
course on the outside, who cheered the great man 
to the echo. Other ceremonies followed, Washing- 
ton showing deep emotion at the manifestation of 
love and loyalty on the part of all. 

J From "Young People's History of Our Country." 
Thomas R. Shewell & Co., 1900. 



54 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

The First Constitutional Congress. — The 
first session of the first Constitutional Congress was 
chiefly occupied in setting the government machin- 
ery in motion. The following nominations for the 
first Cabinet were made by Washington, and con- 
firmed by the Senate: Thomas Jefferson, secretary 
of foreign affairs, afterward known as secretary of 
state; Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treas- 
ury; Henry Knox, secretary of war; and Edmund 
Randolph, attorney-general. John Jay was ap- 
pointed chief justice of the supreme court, with 
John Rutledge, James Wilson, William Cushing, 
Robert H. Harrison, and John Blair associates. 
(The Senate refused to confirm the nomination of 
Rutledge.) 

Federalists and Republicans. — The most 
urgent question was that of finance. Hamilton 
handled it with great skill. The debt of the con- 
federation and States was almost eighty million dol- 
lars. Hamilton's plan, as submitted to Congress, 
called for the payment by the United States of every 
dollar due to American citizens, and also the war 
debt of the country. There was strong opposition 
to the scheme, but it prevailed. The discussions in 
Congress brought out the lines between the Federal- 
ists and the Republicans, or, as they were after- 
ward called, Democrats. The Federalists favored 
the enlargement of the powers of the general gov- 
ernment, while the Republicans insisted upon hold- 
ing the government to the exact letter of the Con- 
stitution, and giving to the individual States all 
rights not expressly prohibited by the Constitution. 



THE PRESIDENT 55 

The Seat of Government. — North Carolina did 
not adopt the Constitution until November 13, 1789. 
Little Rhode Island sulked until Massachusetts and 
Connecticut proposed to parcel her between them, 
when she came to terms and adopted the Constitu- 
tion, May 29, 1790. It was decided to transfer the 
seat of government to Philadelphia until 1800, when 
it was to be permanently fixed upon the eastern 
bank of the Potomac. The third session of the 
first Congress, therefore, was held in Philadelphia, 
on the first Monday in December, 1790. Through 
the efforts of Hamilton, the United States Bank and 
a national mint were established in that city, and 
did much to advance the prosperity of the country. 

A Protective Tariff. — In 1791, Hamilton made 
a memorable report to Congress. In it he favored 
a protective tariff, recommending that the materials 
from which goods are manufactured should not be 
taxed, and advising that articles which competed 
with those made in this country should be prohibited. 
These and other important features were embodied 
in a bill, which was passed February 9, 1792. 

Trouble with the Indians. — Trouble occurred 
with the Indians in the Northwestern Territory and 
in the South. Georgia was dissatisfied with the 
treaty, by which a considerable part of the State 
was relinquished to the Indians. The difficulty in 
the Northwest was much more serious. General 
Harmar was sent to punish the red men for their 
many outrages, but was twice defeated. Then Gen- 
eral St. Clair took his place. Before he set out, 
Washington impressively warned him against being 



56 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

surprised, but he, too, was beaten, and his army 
routed with great slaughter. 

" Mad Anthony " Wayne now took up the task, 
with nearly three thousand men, and completed it 
thoroughly. At Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794, 
he met the combined tribes and delivered a crush- 
ing defeat, from which the Indians did not recover 
for years. One year later, eleven hundred chiefs 
and warriors met the United States commissioners 
at Fort Greenville and signed a treaty of peace, 
relinquishing at the same time a vast tract of land 
lying in the present States of Indiana and Michigan. 

The Whiskey Rebellion. — Among the im- 
portant laws passed by Congress was one imposing 
a duty on distilled spirits. This roused great op* 
position in western Pennsylvania, where whiskey 
was the principal article of manufacture and trade. 
The revolt there assumed such formidable propor- 
tions that it became known as the " Whiskey Re- 
bellion," and the President was compelled to call out 
the militia, fifteen thousand strong, to suppress it. 

Washington's Second Term. — Washington did 
not desire a second term, but his countrymen would 
not permit him to decline. He again received all the 
electoral votes cast, while the next highest number 
went to John Adams. Strong party spirit was 
shown, Hamilton being the leader of the Federal- 
ists, and Jefferson the foremost Republican. 

" Citizen Genet." — During Washington's ad- 
ministrations, France was plunged into the bloodiest 
revolution known in history. Her representative in 
this country was Edmond Charles Genet (zheh-na), 



THE PRESIDENT 57 

better known as " Citizen Genet." Landing at 
Charleston, South Carolina, in April, 1793, he did 
not wait to present his credentials to the govern- 
ment, but began enlisting soldiers and fitting out 
privateers for the French service. Many thought- 
less citizens encouraged him, but the wise Washing- 
ton, finding that Genet defied him, ended the busi- 
ness by compelling his country to recall him. 

Jay's Treaty. — There was much trouble also with 
Great Britain, but a treaty was finally arranged with 
her by our special envoy, John Jay. One of its 
provisions guaranteed payment to British citizens 
of debts due them before the war. This caused 
much opposition, but the time came when it was 
admitted that Jay's treaty was one of the best made 
by our government. 



WASHINGTON 

BY MARY WING ATE 

O noble brow, so wise in thought ! 
O heart, so true ! O soul unbought ! 
O eye, so keen to pierce the night 
And guide the " ship of state " aright ! 
O life, so simple, grand and free, 
The humblest still may turn to thee. 
O king, uncrowned! O prince of men! 
When shall we see thy like again ? 



58 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

The century, just passed away, 

Has felt the impress of thy sway, 

While youthful hearts have stronger grown 

And made thy patriot zeal their own. 

In marble hall or lowly cot, 

Thy name hath never been forgot. 

The world itself is richer, far, 

For the clear shining of a star. 

And loyal hearts in years to run 

Shall turn to thee, O Washington. 



WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION 1 

BY EDWARD EVERETT HALE 

On the fourth of March, 1789, Elbridge Gerry, 
who had been chosen to the Senate of the United 
States, wrote thus from New York to John Adams : 

My Dear Friend: I find, on inquiry, that you are 
elected Vice-President, having three or four times the 
number of votes of any other candidate. Maryland threw 
away their votes on Colonel Harrison, and South Carolina 
on Governor Rutledge, being, with some other states 
which were not unanimous for you, apprehensive that this 
was a necessary step to prevent your election to the chair. 
On this point they were mistaken, for the President, as I 
am informed from pretty good authority, has a unanimous 
vote. It is the universal wish of all that I have conferred 
with, and indeed their expectation, that both General 
Washington and yourself will accept; and should either 

Reprinted from The Independent. 



THE PRESIDENT 59 

refuse, it will have a very disagreeable effect. The mem- 
bers present met to-day in the City Hall, there being about 
eleven Senators and thirteen Representatives, and not con- 
stituting a quorum in either house, they adjourned till 
to-morrow. 

Mrs. Gerry and the ladies join me in sincere regards to 
yourself, your lady, Colonel and Mrs. Smith, and be as- 
sured I remain, etc. 

E. Gerry. 



So slow was the movement of news in those days, 
and so doubtful, even after the election, were all 
men as to its results, Adams would not start from 
Braintree, his home, till he knew he was elected, 
nor Washington from Mt. Vernon. Charles 
Thompson, the Secretary of the old Congress, ar- 
rived at Mt. Vernon on the fourteenth of April and 
communicated to Washington the news of his elec- 
tion. No quorum of the House of Representatives 
had been formed until the first of April, nor of the 
Senate until the sixth. These bodies then counted 
the electoral vote, with the result predicted by Gerry 
in his letter written two days before. 

Washington waited a day before starting to the 
seat of Government. On the sixteenth of April he 
started for New York. He writes in his diary: 

About ten o'clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to 
private life and to domestic felicity; and with a mind 
oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than 
I have words to express, set out for New York in company 
with Mr. Thompson and Colonel Humphries, with the best 
dispositions to render service to my country in obedience 
to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations. 



60 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

The journey began with a public dinner at Alex- 
andria. Said the gentlemen of Alexandria in their 
address to him : 

Farewell! . . . Go! . . . and make a grateful people 
happy, a people who will be doubly grateful when they 
contemplate this recent sacrifice for their interest. 

And Washington in his reply said : 

At my age, and in my circumstances, what prospects or 
advantages could I propose to myself, for embarking again 
on the tempestuous and uncertain ocean of public life? 

The journey went on with similar interruptions. 
The rule so often laid down by the Virginians after- 
ward that that is the best government which gov- 
erns least, was certainly well kept until the thir- 
teenth of April. To this hour the adventurous 
cyclist, stopping at some wayside inn to refresh him- 
self, may find upon the wall the picture of the maid- 
ens and mothers of Trenton in New Jersey. Here 
Washington met a deputation sent to him by Con- 
gress. A triumphal arch had been erected, and a 
row of young girls dressed in white, a second row 
of ladies, and a third of their mothers, awaited 
him. As he passed, the girls scattered flowers, and 
sang the verses which Judge Marshall has pre- 
served : 

Welcome, mighty chief, once more 
Welcome to this grateful shore ; 
Now no mercenary foe 
Aims again the fatal blow — 
Aims at thee the fatal blow. 



THE PRESIDENT 61 

Virgins fair and matrons grave, 
These thy conquering arm did save. 
Build for thee triumphal bowers, 
Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers — 
Strew your Hero's way with flowers. 

His progress through New Jersey was every- 
where accompanied by similar festivities — " festive 
illuminations, the ringing of bells, and the boom- 
ing of cannon." He had written to Governor Clin- 
ton, that he hoped he might enter New York with- 
out ceremony; but this was hardly to be expected. 
A committee of both houses met him at Elizabeth- 
town; he embarked in a splendid barge manned by 
thirteen pilots, masters of vessels, and commanded 
by Commodore Nicholson; other barges and boats 
fell in in the wake ; and a nautical procession swept 
up the Bay of New York. On board two vessels 
were parties of ladies and gentlemen, who sang odes 
as Washington appeared. The ships in the harbor 
were dressed in colors and fired salutes as he passed. 
On landing at Murray's Wharf he was welcomed by 
Governor Clinton and General Knox. It is of the 
landing at this point that the anecdote is told that an 
officer asked Washington's orders, announcing him- 
self as commanding his guard. Washington, with 
his ready presence of mind, begged him to follow 
any directions he had already received in the ar- 
rangements, but said that for the future the affec- 
tion of his fellow-citizens was all the guard that he 
required. 

At the end of the day, in his diary, the sad man 
says: 



62 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

The acclamations of the people filled my mind with 
sensations as painful as pleasing. 

It was some days before the formal inauguration. 
The two houses of Congress did not know by what 
title they should address him, and a committee had 
been appointed to discuss this subject. It was 
finally agreed that the address should be simply, 
" To the President of the United States " — a form 
which has remained to the present day. 

The inauguration finally took place on the thir- 
tieth of April. 

On the thirtieth at last all things were ready, and 
the inauguration went forward. The place was at 
what they then called Federal Hall, in New York, 
and Chancellor Livingstone administered the oath: 

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully administer 
and execute the office of President of the United States, 
and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and 
defend the Constitution of the United States. 

A salute of thirteen guns followed, amid the 
cheers of thousands of people. Washington then 
delivered his inaugural speech to both houses in the 
Senate Chamber. After this ceremony he walked 
to St. Paul's Church, where the Bishop of New 
York read prayers. Maclay, who was a Senator in 
the first Congress, says: 

He was agitated and embarrassed more than he ever was 
by the leveled cannon or pointed musket. He trembled 
and several times could scarce make out to read his speech, 
though it must be supposed he had often read it before. 



THE PRESIDENT 63 

Fisher Ames says : 

He addressed the two houses in the Senate Chamber. 
It was a very touching scene, and quite of a solemn kind. 
His aspect, grave almost to sadness, his modesty, actually 
shaking, his voice deep, a little tremulous, and so low as 
to call for close attention. 

John Adams had taken his place as President of 
the Senate two days before. As he did not always 
in after life speak any too cordially of Washington, 
it is worth noting that at this critical period he said 
that he congratulated the people of America on " the 
prospect of an executive authority in the hands of 
one whose portrait I shall not pretend to draw. 
. . . Were I blessed with powers to do justice to 
his character, it would be impossible to increase the 
confidence, or affection of his country, or make the 
smallest addition to his glory. This can only be ef- 
fected by a discharge of the present exalted trust 
on the same principles, with the same abilities and 
virtues which have uniformly appeared in all his 
former conduct, public or private. May I never- 
theless be indulged to inquire, if we look over the 
catalogue of the first magistrates of nations, whether 
they have been denominated presidents or consuls, 
kings or princes, where shall we find one whose 
commanding talents and virtues, whose overruling 
good fortune, have so completely united all hearts 
and voices in his favor? who enjoyed the esteem and 
admiration of foreign nations and fellow-citizens 
with equal unanimity? Qualities so uncommon are 
no common blessings to the country that possesses 



64 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

them. By these great qualities and their benign ef- 
fects has Providence marked out the head of this 
Nation, with a hand so distinctly visible as to have 
been seen by all men, and mistaken by none." 

Whether on this occasion, there were too much 
ceremony was a question discussed at the time, in 
connection with the heated discussion as to the 
etiquette of the new Administration. There is a 
correspondence between Washington and an old 
friend, Stuart, of Virginia, who had told him that 
the people of that State accused him of " regal man- 
ners." 

Washington's reply, with his usual good sense, 
answers a good many questions which are bruited 
to-day. Dr. Albert Shaw, in the Review of Re- 
views, once brought some of these questions for- 
ward. " How far is it right for the people of a free 
state to kill their magistrates by inches ? " This is 
the question reduced to its simplest terms. It was 
generally understood, when the late Governor 
Greenhalge died in Massachusetts, that his career, 
invaluable to the people of that State and of the 
country, had been cut off untimely by a certain 
etiquette, which obtains in Massachusetts, that 
whenever there is a public dinner the Governor of 
the State must be present and make a speech. With 
reference to a somewhat similar notion, Washing- 
ton says : 

Before the present custom was established I was unable 
to attend to any business whatever. Gentlemen, consult- 
ing their own convenience rather than mine, were calling 
from the time I rose from breakfast, often before, until 



THE PRESIDENT 65 

I sat down to dinner. To please everybody was impossible. 
I therefore adopted that line of conduct which combined 
public advantage with private convenience. 

In another place he says : 

Had I not adopted the principle of returning no visits, I 
should have been unable to have attended to any sort of 
business. 

In contrast with the simple ceremonies at which 
a sensitive democracy took exception, we find now 
that a great nation considers no honors too profuse 
for the ceremonies which attend the inauguration of 
its chief magistrate. 



WASHINGTONIANA 

Extracts from the Contemporary Newspapers and 
other Accounts of the Inauguration of our First 
President in 1789 

From The Massachusetts Sentinel, May 6, 1789: 

New York, May 1. Yesterday the great and il- 
lustrious Washington, the favorite son of liberty, 
and deliverer of his country, entered upon the ex- 
ecution of the office of First Magistrate of the 
United States of America ; to which important sta- 
tion he had been unanimously called by the united 
voice of the people. The ceremony which took place 



66 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

on this occasion was truly grand and pleasing, and 
every heart seemed anxious to testify the joy it felt 
on so memorable an event. His Excellency was 
escorted from his house by a troop of light Dra- 
goons, and the Legion, under the command of 
Colonel Lewis, attended by a committee of the Sen- 
ate and House of Representatives, to Federal Hall, 
where he was formally received by both Houses of 
Congress, assembled in the Senate Chamber; after 
which he was conducted to the gallery in front of 
the hall, accompanied by all the members when the 
oath prescribed by the Constitution was admin- 
istered to him by the Chancellor of this State, who 
then said — 

" Long live George Washington, 

President of the United States ; " which was an- 
swered by an immense concourse of citizens, as- 
sembled on the occasion, by the loudest plaudit and 
acclamation that love and veneration ever inspired. 
His Excellency then made a speech to both Houses, 
and then proceeded, attended by Congress, to St. 
Paul's Church, where Divine Service was performed 
by the Right Rev. Samuel Provost, after which His 
Excellency was conducted in form to his own house. 
In the evening a most magnificent and brilliant dis- 
play of fireworks was exhibited at the Fort, under 
the direction of Colonel Beuman. The houses of 
the French and Spanish Ministers were illuminated 
in a superb and elegant manner ; a number of beau- 
tiful transparent paintings were exhibited, which 



THE PRESIDENT 67 

did infinite credit to the parties concerned in the de- 
sign and execution. 



April 30. We have had this day one of those im- 
pressive sights which dignify and adorn human na- 
ture. At nine o'clock all the churches were opened 
— and the people, in prodigious numbers, thronged 
these sacred temples — and, with one voice, put up 
their prayers to Almighty God for the safety of the 
President. 

At twelve the procession moved to the Federal 
State House, where in the gallery fronting Broad 
Street, in the presence of an immense concourse, 
His Excellency took the oath, the book being placed 
on a velvet cushion. The Chancellor then pro- 
claimed him President — and in a moment the air 
trembled with the shouts of the citizens, and the 
roar of artillery. His Excellency, with that great- 
ness of soul — that dignity and calmness, which are 
his characteristics — then bowed to his " fellow-citi- 
zens " — who again huzzaed. 



From " History of the Arts of Design in Amer- 
ica," by William Dunlap: 

Major L'Enfant was a native of France; he was 
employed to rebuild after a design of his own the 
old New York City Hall in Wall Street, fronting 
Broad Street; making therefrom the Federal Hall 
of that day (1789). The new building was for the 
accommodation of Congress; and in the balcony 
upon which the Senate Chamber opened, the first 



68 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

President of the United States was inaugurated. A 
ceremony which I witnessed, and which for its sim- 
plicity, the persons concerned in it, the effect pro- 
duced upon my country and the world, in giving 
stability to the Federal Constitution, by calling 
Washington to administer its blessings, remains on 
my mind unrivaled by any scene witnessed, through 
a long life, either in Europe or America. 



From Dunlap's " School History of New York ": 

In 1789, I saw Washington divested of the garb 
of war, place his hand on the Bible, and swear to 
support that Constitution under which I have since 
lived happily half a century. Between the pillars 
of the old City Hall, in Wall Street, as altered for 
the reception of the Federal Congress, in view of 
thousands who filled Broad Street as far as the eye 
could extend its view, and every avenue within 
sight of the building, the man of the people's choice 
was announced to them, as the first President of 
the United States of America. 



Abstract of account in New York Packet: 

New York, May 1, 1789. Yesterday at two 
o'clock was solemnly inaugurated into office, our 
Illustrious President. 

The ceremony was begun by the following pro- 
cession from the Federal House to the President's 
house, viz. : 



THE PRESIDENT 69 

Troop of Horse 

Assistants 

Committee of Representatives 

Committee of Senate 

Gentlemen to be admitted in the Senate Chamber 

Gentlemen in coaches 

Citizens on foot 

On their arrival, the President joined the pro- 
cession in his carriage and four, and the whole 
moved through the principal streets to the State 
House in the following order : 

Troop of Horse 

Infantry 

Sheriff on horseback 

Committee of Representatives 

Committee of Senate 

President and 

Assistants (President's Suite) Assistants 

Gentlemen to be admitted in the Senate Chamber 

Gentlemen in coaches 

Citizens on foot 

When the van reached the State House, the troops 
opening their ranks formed an avenue, through 
which, after alighting, the President, advancing to 
the door, was conducted to the Senate Chamber, 
where he was received by both branches of Con- 
gress, and by them accompanied to the balcony or 
outer gallery in front of the State House, which 
was decorated with a canopy and curtains of red 
interstreaked with white for the solemn occasion. 
In this public manner the oath of office required by 
the Constitution was administered by the Chancellor 



70 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

of this State, and the illustrious Washington there- 
upon declared by the said Chancellor, President of 
the United States, amidst the repeated huzzas 
and acclamations of a numerous and crowded 
audience. 

After the inauguration, the President, returning 
to the Senate Chamber, delivered a speech to both 
Houses of Congress. 

After this the President, accompanied by both 
Houses of Congress, proceeded on foot to St. Paul's 
Church (where divine service was performed by 
the Right Rev. Dr. Provost, suitable to the im- 
mediate occasion) in the following order, viz. : 

Troop of Horse 
Infantry- 
Door Keeper and Messenger of Representatives 
Clerk 
Representatives 
Speaker 
President and Vice-President 
President's Suite 
Senators 
Secretary 
Door Keeper and Messenger of the Senate 
Gentlemen admitted into the Senate Chamber 
Sheriff 
Citizens 

Constables, marshals, etc., on each side of the 
Members of Congress at proper distances, from the 
front of the Representatives to the rear of the Sen- 
ators. 

In the evening fireworks were displayed under the 



THE PRESIDENT 71 

direction of Colonel Bauman. — The brilliancy and 
excellency of them does honor to the projector. 

The houses of their Excellencies the French and 
Spanish Ambassadors were most elegantly illumi- 
nated on this auspicious occasion. 



Extract of a letter from a gentleman in New York 
to his friend in Philadelphia, dated May 1, 1789: 

Yesterday the great Patriot Washington took a 
solemn charge of the liberties of America. The 
magnificence and splendor of the procession, from 
his house to the Federal Building, commanded the 
admiration of every beholder. But above all, the 
solemnity which appeared while he took the oath 
of office, was truly affecting. The silent joy which 
every rank of spectators exhibited in their coun- 
tenances, bespoke the sincere wishes of their hearts. 
I could have wished you to have been a spectator. 

The fireworks exhibited in the evening were 
truly brilliant ; and the illuminations and transparent 
paintings of the Spanish and French Ambassadors 
surpassed even conception itself. 



New York, May 2, 1789. We feel satisfied in 
adding to the account given in yesterday's paper of 
the inauguration of the President, — that His Ex- 
cellency on that great day, was dressed in a complete 
suit of elegant broadcloth of the manufacture of his 
country. — Pennsylvania Packet, May 6, 1789. 



72 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

From the Gazette of the United States: 

THE PRESIDENT, accompanied by His Ex- 
cellency the Vice-President, the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and both Houses of Con- 
gress, went to St. Paul's Chapel, where divine 
service was performed by the Right Rev. Dr. Pro- 
vost, Bishop of the Episcopal Church in this State, 
and Chaplain to the Senate. 

The religious solemnity being ended, the Presi- 
dent was escorted to his residence. 



Evening Celebration 

The transparent paintings exhibited in various 
parts of the city, on Thursday evening, were equal 
at least to anything of the kind ever before seen in 
America. 

That displayed before the Fort at the bottom of 
Broad-way did great honor to its inventors and ex- 
ecutors, for the ingenuity of the design, and good- 
ness of the workmanship; it was finely lighted and 
advantageously situated: The virtues, Fortitude, 1 
Justice, 2 and Wisdom 8 were judiciously applied; of 
the first, all America has had the fullest evidence; 
and with respect to the two others, who does not en- 
tertain the most pleasing anticipations. 

His Excellency Don Gardqui's residence next 
caught the eye — and fixed it in pleasing contempla- 

*The President. 

3 The Senate. 

•The Representatives of the United States. 



THE PRESIDENT 73 

tion: The Tout-ensemble here, formed a most 
brilliant front; the figures well fancied. The 
Graces suggested the best ideas; and the pleasing 
variety of emblems, flowers, shrubbery, arches, &c, 
and above all the Moving Pictures, that figured in 
the windows or, as it were, in the background, cre- 
ated by fixing the transparencies between the win- 
dows, afforded a new — an animated and enchanting 
spectacle. 

The residence of his Excellency, Count Meustier, 
was illuminated in a stile of novel elegance; the 
splendid bordering of lamps round the windows, 
doors, &c, with the fancy pieces of each window; 
and above all the large designs in front, the allu- 
sions, of which we cannot at present particularly de- 
scribe, did great honor to the taste and sentiment of 
the inventor. 

The above two instances of attention to honor 
this great and important occasion, so highly inter- 
esting to our " dear country," evince the friendship, 
the delicacy, and politeness of our illustrious allies. 

The portrait of "THE FATHER OF HIS 
COUNTRY" exhibited in Broad-Street, was ex- 
tremely well executed, and had a fine effect. 

There was an excellent transparency, also shown 
at the Theatre, and at the corner, near the Fly- 
Market: In short, emulation and ingenuity were 
alive; but perhaps were in no instance exhibited to 
greater advantage than in the display of fireworks, 
which, from one novelty to another, continued for 
two hours, to surprise by variety, taste, and 
brilliancy. 



74 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY ' 

The illumination of the Federal State House was 
among the most agreeable of the exhibitions of the 
evening; and the ship Carolina formed a beautiful 
pyramid of stars: The evening was fine — the com- 
pany innumerable — everyone appeared to enjoy the 
scene, and no accident casts the smallest clouds upon 
the retrospect. 



May I. Yesterday morning The President re- 
ceived the compliments of His Excellency the Vice- 
President, His Excellency the Governor of this 
State, the principal Officers of the different Depart- 
ments; the foreign Ministers; and a great number 
of other persons of distinction. 

We are informed that the President has assigned 
every Tuesday and Friday, between the hours of 
two and three, for receiving visits; and that visits 
of compliment on other days, and particularly on 
Sundays, will not be agreeable to him. 

It seems to be a prevailing opinion that so much 
of The President's time will be engaged by the 
various and important business imposed upon him 
by the Constitution, that he will find himself con- 
strained to omit returning visits, or accepting in- 
vitations to Entertainments. 



THE PRESIDENT 75 



LESSONS FROM THE WASHINGTON CEN- 
TENNIAL 

BY GEORGE A. GORDON 

Picture to yourselves the joy and expectation 
of that day which saw the establishment of our 
Government a century ago. As the patriots of that 
day in the midst of festivity and joy look back upon 
famine and nakedness and peril and sword, upon 
battlefields and garments rolled in blood, as they 
think of their emergence from the long struggle 
weary and exhausted, as they recall their precarious 
existence as a nation under the articles of confed- 
eration, as they behold the blessing of God upon 
their faith and courage and energy, can we not hear 
those voices, hushed so long ago, speaking to us and 
assuring us that they that sow in tears shall reap in 
joy? 

We think of the founding of our Government and 
we recall at this moment the representatives of three 
generations of statesmen, Washington and Hamil- 
ton, Clay and Webster, Lincoln and Sumner. Our 
attention will be concentrated on the unique and 
commanding figure of the first President. Through 
the renewed study and statement of his public career 
many lessons, familiar indeed, but of fresh im- 
portance, will be read into the hearts of our country. 

We cannot doubt in the case of Washington the 
fact of a divine call. Joshua was not more evi- 
dently called to command the armies of Israel than 



76 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Washington to lead the forces of the united col- 
onies. David was not more signally summoned 
from the sheep-folds to the throne of his people than 
Washington from his quiet home on the Potomac to 
the seat of supreme power over his countrymen. 
There was not a single believer in the Divine Being 
in the Constitutional Congress who did not hear in 
the voice of John Adams, when he moved the ap- 
pointment of George Washington as Commander- 
in-Chief of all the forces raised or to be raised, 
the creation and appointment of God. 

So, in his election and re-election to the office of 
President, Hamilton set forth the clearness and 
urgency of the call in the remark that circumstances 
left Washington no option. That wonderful tri- 
umphal procession from Mount Vernon to New 
York, through Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Tren- 
ton, is in response to the appeal and command not 
only of earth, but of Heaven. As the nation's 
first President was called of God, so is the nation 
itself called. The divine ideal is before it as it was 
before him. God had work for Washington; he 
had work for his nation ; he had work for every one 
of his fellow-citizens. An ideal good is before 
every man, and divine power behind him. Let him 
consent to the control of the power. 

The nation's life and each individual life within 
it is founded on the sense of obligation. We have 
in the model of Washington a definition of duty in 
the special sense of the term, in the saying, " I most 
heartily wish the choice may not fall upon me. The 
wish of my soul is to spend the evening of my days 



THE PRESIDENT -ft 

as a private citizen on my farm." There is the 
power of inclination, the pleading of personal ease 
and comfort, the assertion of individual good. In 
all this there is nothing wrong, until it comes into 
conflict with the national call, with the universal 
good. Then came the fight between the special and 
the general, the private and the public, the individual 
and the universal good. 

The hope of a nation is in the choice of office of 
its best men. The historic peril of the republic lies 
in the choice of unfit men for eminent official posi- 
tion. This is our peril. It is well we are becom- 
ing more and more alive to it. Nevertheless it is 
well to remember that there have been times in our 
history when the voice of electors has been the 
voice of God. When Washington was elected, the 
fittest man was chosen. His was the rule of the 
wisest and best man. There are few living who 
will not confess that Abraham Lincoln was another 
example of the choice by the people of the best 
man. We turn in hope to the great future. After 
he had taken the oath, Washington bowed his head, 
kissed the Bible, and, with the deepest feeling, ut- 
tered the words, " So help me God." There was 
his hope. There is the hope of every man. There 
is the hope of the nation. 



78 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RECEPTIONS 

BY WILLIAM SULLIVAN 

He devoted one hour every other Tuesday, from 
three to four, to these visits. He understood him- 
self to be visited as the " President of the United 
States," and not on his own account. He was not 
to be seen by anybody and everybody ; but required 
that everyone who came should be introduced by 
his secretary, or by some gentleman whom he knew 
himself. He lived on the south side of Market 
Street, just below Sixth. The place of reception 
was the dining-room in the rear, twenty-five or 
thirty feet in length, including the bow projecting 
over into the garden. Mrs. Washington received 
her visitors in the two rooms on the second floor, 
from front to rear. 

At three o'clock, or at any time within a quarter 
of an hour afterward, the visitor was conducted to 
this dining-room, from which all seats had been re- 
moved for the time. On entering, he saw the tall, 
manly figure of Washington, clad in black velvet; 
his hair in full dress, powdered and gathered be- 
hind in a large silk bag ; yellow gloves on his hands ; 
holding a cocked hat with cockade in it, and the 
edges adorned with a black feather, about an inch 
deep. He wore knee and shoe buckles; and a long 
sword with a finely wrought and polished steel hilt. 
The scabbard was white polished leather. 

He stood always in front of the fireplace, with his 
face toward the door of entrance. The visitor was 



THE PRESIDENT 79 

conducted to him, and he required to have the name 
so distinctly pronounced that he could hear it. He 
had the very uncommon faculty of associating a 
man's name and personal appearance so durably in 
his memory, as to be able to call anyone by name, 
who made a second visit. He received his visitor 
with a dignified bow, while his hands were so dis- 
posed of as to indicate that the salutation was not 
to be accompanied with shaking hands. This cere- 
mony never occurred in these visits, even with his 
most near friends, that no distinction might be made. 

As these visitors came in, they formed a circle 
round the room. At a quarter-past three, the door 
was closed, and the circle was formed for that day. 
He then began on the right and spoke to each vis- 
itor, calling him by name and exchanging a few 
words with him. When he had completed his cir- 
cuit he resumed his first position, and the visitors 
approached him in succession, bowed, and retired. 
By four o'clock the ceremony was over. 

On the evenings Mrs. Washington received vis- 
itors, he did not consider himself as visited. He 
was then as a private gentleman, dressed usually in 
some colored coat and waistcoat, often brown with 
bright buttons, and black on his lower limbs. He 
had then neither hat nor sword; he moved about 
among the company, conversing with one and an- 
other. He had once a fortnight an official dinner, 
and select companies on other days. He sat (it is 
said) at the side in a central position, Mrs. Wash- 
ington opposite; the two ends were occupied by 
members of his family, or by personal friends. 



80 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

THE FOREIGN POLICY OF WASHINGTON 

BY CHARLES JAMES FOX 

How infinitely superior must appear the spirit 
and principles of General Washington, in his late 
address to Congress, compared with the policy of 
modern European courts! Illustrious man! — de- 
riving honor less from the splendor of his situa- 
tion than from the dignity of his mind ! Grateful to 
France for the assistance received from her in that 
great contest which secured the independence of 
America, he yet did not choose to give up the sys- 
tem of neutrality in her favor. Having once laid 
down the line of conduct most proper to be pursued, 
not all the insults and provocations of the French 
Minister, Genet, could at all put him out of his way 
or bend him from his purpose. It must, indeed, 
create astonishment that, placed in circumstances so 
critical, and filling a station so conspicuous, the 
character of Washington should never once have 
been called in question ; that he should in no one in- 
stance have been accused either of improper inso- 
lence or of mean submission in his transactions with 
foreign nations. It has been reserved for him to 
run the race of glory without experiencing the small- 
est interruption to the brilliancy of his career. The 
breath of censure has not dared to impeach the 
purity of his conduct, nor the eye of envy to raise 
its malignant glance to the elevation of his virtues. 
Such has been the transcendent merit and the un- 
paralleled fate of this illustrious man! 



THE PRESIDENT 81 

How did he act when insulted by Genet ? Did he 
consider it as necessary to avenge himself for the 
misconduct or madness of an individual by involving 
a whole continent in the horrors of war? No; he 
contented himself with procuring satisfaction for the 
insult by causing Genet to be recalled, and thus at 
once consulted his own dignity and the interests of 
his country. Happy Americans! while the whirl- 
wind flies over one quarter of the globe, and spreads 
everywhere desolation, you remain protected from 
its baneful effects by your own virtues and the wis- 
dom of your government. Separated from Europe 
by an immense ocean, you feel not the effect of those 
prejudices and passions which convert the boasted 
seats of civilization into scenes of horror and blood- 
shed. You profit by the folly and madness of the 
contending nations, and afford, in your more con- 
genial clime, an asylum to those blessings and vir- 
tues which they wantonly contemn, or wickedly ex- 
clude from their bosom! Cultivating the arts of 
peace under the influence of freedom, you advance 
by rapid strides to opulence and distinction; and if 
by any accident you should be compelled to take 
part in the present unhappy contest, — if you should 
find it necessary to avenge insult or repel injury, — 
the world will bear witness to the equity of your 
sentiments and the moderation of your views; and 
the success of your arms will, no doubt, be propor- 
tioned to the justice of your cause. 



V 
LAST DAYS 



GEORGE WASHINGTON » 

BY HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE 

On the 4th of March, 1797, Washington went to 
the inauguration of his successor as President of the 
United States. The Federal Government was sit- 
ting in Philadelphia at that time, and Congress held 
sessions in the courthouse on the corner of Sixth 
and Chestnut Streets. 

At the appointed hour Washington entered the 
hall, followed by John Adams, who was to take 
the oath of office. When they were seated, Wash- 
ington arose and introduced Mr. Adams to the audi- 
ence, and then proceeded to read in a firm, clear 
voice his brief valedictory — not his great " Fare- 
well Address," for that had already been published. 
A lady who sat on " the front bench," " immedi- 
ately in front " of Washington, describes the scene 
in these words : 

There was a narrow passage from the door of entrance 
to the room. General Washington stopped at the end to 
let Mr. Adams pass to the chair. The latter always wore 
a full suit of bright drab, with loose cuffs to his coat. 
General Washington's dress was a full suit of black. His 
military hat had the black cockade. There stood the 

1 From " Heroes Every Child Should Know." Copyright, 
1906, by Doubleday, Page & Co. 

85 



86 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

" Father of his Country," acknowledged by nations the first 
in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his country- 
men. No marshals with gold-colored scarfs attended him ; 
there was no cheering, no noise ; the most profound silence 
greeted him as if the great assembly desired to hear him 
breathe. Mr. Adams covered his face with both his hands ; 
the sleeves of his coat and his hands were covered with 
tears. Every now and then there was a suppressed sob. 
I cannot describe Washington's appearance as I felt it — 
perfectly composed and self-possessed till the close of his 
address. Then, when strong nervous sobs broke loose, 
when tears covered the faces, then the great man was 
shaken. I never took my eyes from his face. Large drops 
came from his eyes. He looked as if his heart was with 
them, and would be to the end. 

On Washington's retirement from the Presidency 
one of his first employments was to arrange his pa- 
pers and letters. Then, on returning to his home, 
the venerable master found many things to repair. 
His landed estate comprised eight thousand acres, 
and was divided into farms, with inclosures and 
farm buildings. And now, with body and mind 
alike sound and vigorous, he bent his energies to 
directing the improvements that marked his last 
days at Mount Vernon. 

In his earlier as well as in later life, his tour of 
the farms would average from eight to twelve or 
fourteen miles a day. He rode upon his farms en- 
tirely unattended, opening his gates, pulling down 
and putting up his fences as he passed, visiting his 
laborers at their work, inspecting all the operations 
of his extensive establishment with a careful eye, 
directing useful improvements, and superintending 
them in their progress. 



LAST DAYS 87 

He usually rode at a moderate pace in passing 
through his fields. But when behind time, this 
most punctual of men would display the horse- 
manship of his earlier days, and a hard gallop 
would bring him up to time so that the sound of 
his horse's hoofs and the first dinner bell would 
be heard together at a quarter before three. 

A story is told that one day an elderly stranger 
meeting a Revolutionary worthy out hunting, a 
long-tried and valued friend of the chief, accosted 
him, and asked whether Washington was to be 
found at the mansion house, or whether he was off 
riding over his estate. The friend answered that 
he was visiting his farms, and directed the stranger 
the road to take, adding, " You will meet, sir, with 
an old gentleman riding alone in plain drab clothes, 
a broad-brimmed white hat, a hickory switch in his 
hand, and carrying an umbrella with a long staff, 
which is attached to his saddle-bow — that person, 
sir, is General Washington." 

Precisely at a quarter before three the industrious 
farmer returned, dressed, and dined at three o'clock. 
At this meal he ate heartily, but was not particular 
in his diet with the exception of fish, of which he 
was excessively fond. Touching his liking for fish, 
and illustrative of his practical economy and abhor- 
rence of waste and extravagance, an anecdote is 
told of the time he was President and living in Phil- 
adelphia. It happened that a single shad had been 
caught in the Delaware, and brought to the city 
market. His steward, Sam Fraunces, pounced upon 
the fish with the speed of an osprey, delighted that 



88 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

he had secured a delicacy agreeable to the palate 
of his chief, and careless of the expense, for which 
the President had often rebuked him. 

When the fish was served, Washington suspected 
the steward had forgotten his order about ex- 
penditure for the table, and said to Fraunces, who 
stood at his post at the sideboard, " What fish is 
this ? " "A shad, sir, a very fine shad," the steward 
answered. " I know Your Excellency is par- 
ticularly fond of this kind of fish, and was so for- 
tunate as to procure this one — the only one in mar- 
ket, sir, the first of the season." " The price, sir, 
the price?" asked Washington sternly. "Three — 
three dollars," stammered the conscience-stricken 
steward. " Take it away," thundered the chief, 
" take it away, sir ! It shall never be said that my 
table set such an example of luxury and ex- 
travagance." Poor Fraunces tremblingly did as he 
was told, and the first shad of the season was car- 
ried away untouched, to be speedily discussed in 
the servants' dining-room. 

Although the Farmer of Mount Vernon was much 
retired from the business world, he was by no 
means inattentive to the progress of public affairs. 
When the post-bag arrived, he would select his let- 
ters and lay them aside for reading in the seclusion 
of his library. The newspapers he would peruse 
while taking his single cup of tea (his only supper) 
and read aloud passages of peculiar interest, re- 
marking the matter as he went along. He read with 
distinctness and precision. These evenings with his 
family always ended at precisely nine o'clock, when 



LAST DAYS 89 

he bade everyone good-night and retired to rest, to 
rise again at four and renew the same routine of 
labor and enjoyment. 

Washington's last days, like those that preceded 
them in the course of a long and well-spent life, 
were devoted to constant and careful employment. 
His correspondence both at home and abroad was 
immense. Yet no letter was unanswered. One of 
the best-bred men of his time, Washington deemed 
it a grave offense against the rules of good manners 
and propriety to leave letters unanswered. He 
wrote with great facility, and it would be a diffi- 
cult matter to find another who had written so 
much, who had written so well. General Harry 
Lee once observed to him, " We are amazed, sir, at 
the vast amount of work you get through." Wash- 
ington answered, " Sir, I rise at four o'clock, and a 
great deal of my work is done while others sleep." 

He was the most punctual of men, as we said. 
To this admirable quality of rising at four and re- 
tiring to rest at nine at all seasons, this great man 
owed his ability to accomplish mighty labors during 
his long and illustrious life. He was punctual in 
everything, and made everyone about him punctual. 
So careful a man delighted in always having about 
him a good timekeeper. In Philadelphia the first 
President regularly walked up to his watchmaker's 
to compare his watch with the regulator. At Mount 
Vernon the active yet punctual farmer invariably 
consulted the dial when returning from his morn- 
ing ride, and before entering his house. 

The affairs of the household took order from the 



go WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

master's accurate and methodical arrangement of 
time. Even the fisherman on the river watched for 
the cook's signal when to pull in shore and deliver 
his catch in time for dinner. 

Among the picturesque objects on the Potomac, to 
be seen from the eastern portion of the mansion 
house, was the light canoe of the house's fisher. 
Father Jack was an African, an hundred years of 
age, and although enfeebled in body by weight of 
years, his mind possessed uncommon vigor. And 
he would tell of days long past, when, under 
African suns, he was made captive, and of the ter- 
rible battle in which his royal sire was slain, the 
village burned, and himself sent to the slave 
ship. 

Father Jack had in a considerable degree a lead- 
ing quality of his race — somnolency. Many an hour 
could the family of Washington see the canoe fas- 
tened to a stake, with the old fisherman bent nearly 
double enjoying a nap, which was only disturbed by 
the jerking of the white perch caught on his hook. 
But, as we just said, the domestic duties of Mount 
Vernon were governed by clock time, and the slum- 
bers of fisher Jack might occasion inconvenience, 
for the cook required the fish at a certain hour, so 
that they might be served smoking hot precisely at 
three. At times he would go to the river bank and 
make the accustomed signals, and meet with no re- 
sponse. The old fisherman would be quietly repos- 
ing in his canoe, rocked by the gentle undulations of 
the stream, and dreaming, no doubt, of events 
" long time ago." The importune master of the 



LAST DAYS 91 

kitchen, grown ferocious by delay, would now rush 
up and down the water's edge, and, by dint of loud 
shouting, cause the canoe to turn its prow to the 
shore. Father Jack, indignant at its being supposed 
he was asleep at his post, would rate those present 
on his landing, " What you all meek such a debil 
of a noise for, hey? I wa'nt sleep, only noddin'." 

The establishment of Mount Vernon employed a 
perfect army of domestics ; yet to each one were as- 
signed special duties, and from each one strict per- 
formance was required. There was no confusion 
where there was order, and the affairs of this estate, 
embracing thousands of acres and hundreds of de- 
pendents, were conducted with as much ease, 
method, and regularity as the affairs of a homestead 
of average size. 

Mrs. Washington was an accomplished housewife 
of the olden time, and she gave constant attention 
to all matters of her household, and by her skill and 
management greatly contributed to the comfort and 
entertainment of the guests who enjoyed the hos- 
pitality of her home. 

The best charities of life were gathered round 
Washington in the last days at Mount Vernon. The 
love and veneration of a whole people for his il- 
lustrious services, his generous and untiring labors 
in the cause of public utility; his kindly demeanor 
to his family circle, his friends, and numerous de- 
pendents ; his courteous and cordial hospitality to his 
guests, many of them strangers from far distant 
lands; these charities, all of which sprang from 
the heart, were the ornament of his declining years, 



92 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

and granted the most sublime scene in nature, when 
human greatness reposes upon human happiness. 

On the morning of the 13th of December, 1799, 
the General was engaged in making some improve- 
ments in the front of Mount Vernon. As was 
usual with him, he carried his own compass, noted 
his observations, and marked out the ground. The 
day became rainy, with sleet, and the improver re- 
mained so long exposed to the inclemency of the 
weather as to be considerably wetted before his re- 
turn to the house. About one o'clock he was seized 
with chilliness and nausea, but having changed his 
clothes, he sat down to his indoor work. At night, 
on joining his family circle, he complained of a 
slight indisposition. Upon the night of the follow- 
ing day, having borne acute suffering with com- 
posure and fortitude, he died. 

In person Washington was unique. He looked 
like no one else. To a stature lofty and command- 
ing he united a form of the manliest proportions, 
and a dignified, graceful, and imposing carriage. 
In the prime of life he stood six feet, two inches. 
From the period of the Revolution there was an 
evident bending in his frame so passing straight be- 
fore, but the stoop came from the cares and toils 
of that arduous contest rather than from years. 
For his step was firm, his appearance noble and im- 
pressive long after the time when the physical prop- 
erties of men are supposed to wane. 

A majestic height was met by corresponding 
breadth and firmness. His whole person was so 
cast in nature's finest mould as to resemble an an- 



LAST DAYS 93 

cient statue, all of whose parts unite to the perfec- 
tion of the whole. But with all its development of 
muscular power, Washington's form had no look of 
bulkiness, and so harmonious were its proportions 
that he did not appear so tall as his portraits have 
represented. He was rather spare than full dur- 
ing his whole life. 

The strength of Washington's arm was shown on 
several occasions. He threw a stone from the bed 
of the stream to the top of the Natural Bridge, 
Virginia, and another stone across the Rappahan- 
nock at Fredericksburg. The stone was said to be 
a piece of slate about the size of a dollar with which 
he spanned the bold river, and it took the ground at 
least thirty yards on the other side. Many have 
since tried this feat, but none have cleared the 
water. 

In 1772 some young men were contending at 
Mount Vernon in the exercise of pitching the bar. 
The Colonel looked on for a time, then grasping the 
missile in his master hand, he whirled the iron 
through the air, and it fell far beyond any of its 
former limits. " You see, young gentlemen," said 
the chief with a smile, " that my arm yet retains 
some portion of my early vigor." He was then in 
his fortieth year, and probably in the fullness of 
his physical powers. Those powers became rather 
mellowed than decayed by time, for " his age was 
like lusty winter, frosty yet kindly," and up to his 
sixty-eighth year he mounted a horse with surprising 
agility, and rode with ease and grace. Rickets, the 
celebrated equestrian, used to say, " I delight to see 



94 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

the General ride, and make it a point to fall in with 
him when I hear he is out on horseback — his seat 
is so firm, his management so easy and graceful, 
that I, who am an instructor in horsemanship, would 
go to him and learn to ride." 

In his later day, the General, desirous of riding 
pleasantly, procured from the North two horses of 
a breed for bearing the saddle. They were well to 
look at, and pleasantly gaited under the saddle, but 
also scary, and therefore unfitted for the service of 
one who liked to ride quietly on his farm, occasion- 
ally dismounting and walking in his fields to inspect 
improvements. From one of these horses the Gen- 
eral sustained a fall — probably the only fall he ever 
had from a horse in his life. It was upon a No- 
vember evening, and he was returning from Alex- 
andria to Mount Vernon, with three friends and a 
groom. Having halted a few moments, he dis- 
mounted, and upon rising in his stirrup again, the 
horse, alarmed at the glare from a fire near the 
roadside, sprang from under his rider, who came 
heavily to the ground. His friends rushed to give 
him assistance, thinking him hurt. But the vigor- 
ous old man was upon his feet again, brushing the 
dust from his clothes, and after thanking those who 
came to his aid, said that he had had a very com- 
plete tumble, and that it was owing to a cause no 
horseman could well avoid or control — that he was 
only poised in his stirrup, and had not yet gained his 
saddle when the scary animal sprang from under 
him. 

Bred in the vigorous school of frontier warfare, 



LAST DAYS 95 

" the earth for his bed, his canopy the heavens," 
Washington excelled the hunter and woodsman in 
their athletic habits, and in those trials of manhood 
which filled the hardy days of his early life. He 
was amazingly swift of foot, and could climb steep 
mountains seemingly without effort. Indeed, in all 
the tests of his great physical powers he appeared 
to make little effort. When he overthrew the 
strong man of Virginia in wrestling, upon a day 
when many of the finest athletes were engaged in the 
contest, he had retired to the shade of a tree intent 
upon the reading of a book. It was only after the 
champion of the games strode through the ring call- 
ing for nobler antagonists, and taunting the reader 
with the fear that he would be thrown, that Wash- 
ington closed his book. Without taking off his coat 
he calmly observed that fear did not enter his 
make-up; then grappling with the champion, he 
hurled him to the ground. " In Washington's lion- 
like grasp," said the vanquished wrestler, " I became 
powerless, and went down with a force that seemed 
to jar the very marrow in my bones." The victor, 
regardless of shouts at his success, leisurely retired 
to his shade, and again took up his book. 

Washington's powers were chiefly in his limbs. 
His frame was of equal breadth from the shoulders 
to the hips. His chest was not prominent, but 
rather hollowed in the center. He never entirely 
recovered from a pulmonary affection from which 
he suffered in early life. His frame showed an ex- 
traordinary development of bone and muscle; his 
joints were large, as were his feet; and could a cast 



96 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

of his hand have been preserved, it would be 
ascribed to a being of a fabulous age. Lafayette 
said, " I never saw any human being with so large 
a hand as the General's." 

Of the awe and reverence which the presence of 
Washington inspired we have many records. " I 
stood," says one writer, " before the door of the 
Hall of Congress in Philadelphia, when the carriage 
of the President drew up. It was a white coach, 
or, rather, of a light cream color, painted on the 
panels with beautiful groups representing the four 
seasons. As Washington alighted, and, ascending 
the steps, paused on the platform, he was preceded 
by two gentlemen bearing large white wands, who 
kept back the eager crowd that pressed on every 
side. At that moment I stood so near I might have 
touched his clothes; but I should as soon have 
thought of touching an electric battery. I was 
penetrated with deepest awe. Nor was this the 
feeling of the schoolboy I then was. It pervaded, I 
believe, every human being that approached Wash- 
ington ; and I have been told that even in his social 
hours, this feeling in those who shared them never 
suffered intermission. I saw him a hundred times 
afterward, but never with any other than the same 
feeling. The Almighty, who raised up for our 
hour of need a man so peculiarly prepared for its 
whole dread responsibility, seems to have put a 
stamp of sacredness upon his instrument. The 
first sight of the man struck the eye with involuntary 
homage, and prepared everything around him to 
obey. 



LAST DAYS 97 

"At the time I speak of, he stood in profound 
silence and had the statue-like air which mental 
greatness alone can bestow. As he turned to enter 
the building, and was ascending the staircase to the 
Congressional hall, I glided along unseen, almost un- 
der the cover of the skirts of his dress, and entered 
into the lobby of the House, which was in session to 
receive him. 

" At Washington's entrance there was a most pro- 
found silence. House, lobbies, gallery, all were 
wrapped in deepest attention. And the souls of the 
entire assemblage seemed peering from their eyes as 
the noble figure deliberately and unaffectedly ad- 
vanced up the broad aisle of the hall between ranks 
of standing Senators and members, and slowly 
ascended the steps leading to the Speaker's chair. 

" The President, having seated himself, remained 
in silence, and the members took their seats, wait- 
ing for the speech. No house of worship was ever 
more profoundly still than that large and crowded 
chamber. 

" Washington was dressed precisely as Stuart has 
painted him in full-length portrait — in a full suit of 
the richest black velvet, with diamond knee-buckles 
and square silver buckles set upon shoes japanned 
with most scrupulous neatness ; black silk stockings, 
his shirt ruffled at the breast and waist, a light dress 
sword, his hair profusely powdered, fully dressed, 
so as to project at the sides, and gathered behind in 
a silk bag ornamented with a large rose or black 
ribbon. He held his cocked hat, which had a large 
black cockade on one side of it, in his hand, as he 



98 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

advanced toward the chair, and when seated, laid it 
on the table. 

" At length thrusting his hand within the side of 
his coat, he drew forth a roll of manuscript which 
he opened, and rising, read in a rich, deep, full, 
sonorous voice his opening address to Congress. 
His enunciation was deliberate, justly emphasized, 
very distinct, and accompanied with an air of deep 
solemnity as being the utterance of a mind conscious 
of the whole responsibility of its position, but not 
oppressed by it. There was ever about the man 
something which impressed one with the conviction 
that he was exactly and fully equal to what he had 
to do. He was never hurried ; never negligent ; but 
seemed ever prepared for the occasion, be it what it 
might. In his study, in his parlor, at a levee, be- 
fore Congress, at the head of the army, he seemed 
ever to be just what the situation required. He 
possessed, in a degree never equaled by any human 
being I ever saw, the strongest, most ever-present 
sense of propriety. " 

In the early part of Washington's administra- 
tion, great complaints were made by political op- 
ponents of the aristocratic and royal demeanor of 
the President. Particularly, these complaints were 
about the manner of his receiving visitors. In a 
letter Washington gave account of the origin of his 
levees : " Before the custom was established," he 
wrote, " which now accommodates foreign char- 
acters, strangers, and others, who, from motives of 
curiosity, respect for the chief magistrate, or other 
cause, are induced to call upon me, I was unable to 



LAST DAYS 99 

attend to any business whatever; for gentlemen, 
consulting their own convenience rather than mine, 
were calling after the time I rose from breakfast, 
and often before, until I sat down to dinner. This, 
as I resolved not to neglect my public duties, re- 
duced me to the choice of one of these alternatives : 
either to refuse visits altogether, or to appropriate 
a time for the reception of them. ... To please 
everybody was impossible. I, therefore, adopted 
that line of conduct which combined public ad- 
vantage with private convenience. . . . These vis- 
its are optional, they are made without invitation; 
between the hours of three and four every Tues- 
day I am prepared to receive them. Gentlemen, 
often in great numbers, come and go, chat with 
each other, and act as they please. A porter shows 
them into the room, and they retire from it when 
they choose, without ceremony. At their first en- 
trance they salute me, and I them, and as many 
as I can talk to." 

An English gentleman, after visiting President 
Washington, wrote : " There was a commanding air 
in his appearance which excited respect and forbade 
too great a freedom toward him, independently of 
that species of awe which is always felt in the moral 
influence of a great character? In every move- 
ment, too, there was a polite gracefulness equal to 
any met with in the most polished individuals of 
Europe, and his smile was extraordinarily at- 
tractive. ... It struck me no man could be bet- 
ter formed for command. A stature of six feet, a 
robust but well-proportioned frame calculated to 



ioo WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

stand fatigue, without that heaviness which gener- 
ally attends great muscular strength and abates 
active exertion, displayed bodily power of no mean 
standard. A light eye and full — the very eye of 
genius and reflection. His nose appeared thick, and 
though it befitted his other features, was too coarsely 
and strongly formed to be the handsomest of its 
class. His mouth was like no other I ever saw: 
the lips firm, and the underjaw seeming to grasp the 
upper with force, as if its muscles were in full action 
when he sat still." 

Such Washington appeared to those who saw and 
knew him. Such he remains to our vision. His 
memory is held by us in undying honor. Not only 
his memory alone, but also the memory of his as- 
sociates in the struggle for American Independence. 
Homage we should have in our hearts for those 
patriots and heroes and sages who with humble 
means raised their native land — now our native land 
— from the depths of dependence, and made it a 
free nation. And especially for Washington, who 
presided over the nation's course at the beginning of 
the great experiment in self-government and, after 
an unexampled career in the service of freedom and 
our human-kind, with no dimming of august fame, 
died calmly at Mount Vernon — the Father of his 
Country. 



LAST DAYS 101 

WASHINGTON'S LAST DAYS 1 

BY ELIZABETH EGGLESTON SEELYE 

Once more before he died Washington was called 
into public life for a short time. President Adams 
had sent three commissioners to France. The 
French Minister, Talleyrand, treated them ill, and 
sent secret agents to them to let them know that 
nothing would be done until they paid large bribes. 
The three Americans sent home cipher dispatches in 
which they told how they had been received. Presi- 
dent Adams thought best to publish these dispatches, 
putting the letters X, Y, and Z in place of the names 
of the secret agents. These papers came to be 
known as the X, Y, and Z dispatches, and they 
caused great excitement in America. The cry was, 
" Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute," 
and the war spirit rose very high. Everyone wished 
Washington to be the leader in case there should be 
war with France. President Adams accordingly 
wrote to Washington, asking him to accept the 
command of the new army which was to be 
formed. Washington accepted, on condition that he 
was not to be called into service unless there should 
really be war, and that he should be allowed to 
name the chief officers who were to serve under 
him. He wished to put a young and able man sec- 
ond in command — for old officers seldom make good 

^rom "The Story of Washington." D. Appleton & 
Co., 1893. 



102 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

ones — so he chose Hamilton first, then Pinckney, 
and then Knox. Adams disliked Hamilton, and 
tried to place Knox second in command, as this old 
officer thought his due. There was some trouble 
between Washington and Adams on this point, but 
Adams was forced to give way to the great leader. 
Washington went to Philadelphia in the fall of 
1798, to work over army plans with his major-gen- 
erals. It seemed possible that he might have to 
lead the Americans against one of Napoleon's 
great armies. But though he made careful 
preparations, Washington did not believe that there 
would be war. He thought, however, that prepar- 
ing for war would be the best way to bring about 
peace. And so it proved; for no sooner did Tal- 
leyrand see that the Americans were really aroused 
than he caused it to be intimated to the American 
Minister at Holland that he would treat another en- 
voy better. Adams accordingly sent one to France, 
and war was finally averted, though the news of the 
settlement did not reach America until after the 
death of her great General. 

Washington had said, " I am of a short-lived 
family, and cannot remain long upon the earth." 
In fact, his sister and all of his brothers except one 
died before he did. According to his usual careful 
habits, he made out a long paper, in which he 
planned how his estates should be managed for 
several years, with a rotation of crops. He finished 
this paper only four days before his death. The 
day before he was taken ill he walked out with his 
nephew, Lawrence Lewis, who was married to Nelly 



LAST DAYS 103 

Custis and living at Mount Vernon, and talked to 
him about building a new family vault. " This 
change," said he, " I shall make first of all, for I 
may require it before the rest." 

On the 1 2th of December, 1799, Washington 
made the tour, as usual, of his plantations. The 
weather was very bad. There was rain, hail, and 
snow falling at different times, and a cold wind 
blowing. It was after three o'clock when he re- 
turned. Mr. Lear, his secretary, brought him some 
letters to be franked, for he intended to send them 
to the post office that afternoon. Washington 
franked the letters, but said that the weather was 
too bad to send a servant out with them. Lear no- 
ticed that the General's neck appeared to be wet, 
and that there was snow clinging to his hair. He 
spoke to him about it, but Washington said that he 
was not wet, as his greatcoat had protected him. 
He went to dinner, which was waiting for him, 
without changing his clothes. The next day he 
complained of a sore throat, and remained in the 
house in the morning, as it was snowing hard. In 
the afternoon, however, he went out to mark some 
trees which he wished cut down, between the house 
and the river. He was quite hoarse by evening. 
He sat in the parlor, however, with Mrs. Washing- 
ton and Lear, reading the papers which had been 
brought from the post office. He read some things 
aloud in spite of his hoarseness. At nine o'clock 
Mrs. Washington went to the room of her grand- 
daughter Nelly, whose first child had recently been 
born. The two gentlemen continued to read the 



104 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

papers, and Washington seemed cheerful. Once he 
became excited over some political event, and used 
some of the strong words he could command on 
occasion. Before they went to bed, Lear advised 
the General to take something for his cold. 

" No," said Washington ; " you know I never 
take anything for a cold. Let it go as it came." 

During the night, however, he had a chill, and 
awoke Mrs. Washington, telling her that he felt ill. 
She wished to get up, but he would not allow her 
to do this, lest she should take cold. When the 
servant came into the room to make a fire at day- 
light, Mrs. Washington sent for Lear, and got up 
herself. The General was now breathing with dif- 
ficulty, and could scarcely speak. Lear sent for 
Dr. Craik, and meantime Washington told him to 
send for Mr. Rawlins, an overseer, to bleed him. 
Rawlins came soon after sunrise, and trembled at 
the prospect of opening a vein on the great man's 
arm. " Don't be afraid," said Washington ; and 
when the vein had been opened, he added, " the 
orifice is not large enough." Mrs. Washington did 
not approve of the bleeding before the doctor came, 
but Washington said, " More, more." It was a 
universal remedy in those days, but it brought no 
relief to the sufferer. 

During the day three doctors arrived. Washing- 
ton was bled three times; blisters were applied to 
the throat and the feet ; all that medical science could 
do in that day was tried, but without success. The 
disease was an acute laryngitis, and could have 
been relieved only by tracheotomy, which was not 



LAST DAYS 105 

practical in the South, though it had been tried in 
Philadelphia at an earlier date. About half-past 
four in the afternoon the sick man asked Mrs. 
Washington to go downstairs and fetch two wills 
from his desk. He looked at them, and asked her 
to burn one of them, which she did. Lear now 
came to his bedside and took his hand. 

" I find I am going," Washington said to him. 
" My breath cannot last long. I believed from the 
first that the disorder would prove fatal. Do you 
arrange and record all my late military letters and 
papers. Arrange my accounts and settle my books, 
as you know more about them than anyone else, and 
let Mr. Rawlins finish recording my other letters 
which he has begun." 

Washington asked Lear whether he thought of 
anything else that ought to be done; he had but a 
very short time, he said, to remain with his friends. 
The secretary answered that he could think of 
nothing, and that he hoped the General was not so 
near his end as he thought. Washington smiled, 
and said that he certainly was, " and that, as it was 
a debt which we must all pay, he looked on the event 
with perfect resignation." 

Sometimes he seemed to be in pain and distress 
from the difficulty of breathing, and was very rest- 
less. Lear would then lie down upon the bed and 
raise and turn him as gently as possibly. Washing- 
ton often said, " I am afraid I shall fatigue you too 
much " ; and when the young man assured him that 
he wished for nothing but to give him ease, Wash- 
ington replied: 



io6 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

" Well, it is a debt we must pay to each other, and 
I hope that when you want aid of this kind you will 
find it." 

He noticed that his servant, Christopher, had been 
standing most of the day, and told him to sit down. 
He asked when his nephew Lewis and his adopted 
son Custis, who were away from home, would re- 
turn. When his lifelong friend, Dr. Craik, came to 
his bedside, he said : " Doctor, I die hard, but I am 
not afraid to go. I believed from my first attack 
that I should not survive it. My breath cannot last 
long." The doctor was unable to answer from 
grief, and could only press his hand. 

He afterward said to all the physicians : " I feel 
myself going. I thank you for your attentions ; but, 
I pray you, take no more trouble about me. Let 
me go off quietly; I cannot last long." He con- 
tinued to be restless and uneasy, but made no com- 
plaints, only asking now and then what time it was. 
When Lear helped him to move, he gave the secre- 
tary a look of gratitude. About ten o'clock at night 
he made several efforts to speak to Lear before he 
could do so. He finally said : " I am just going. 
Have me decently buried; and do not let my body 
be put into the vault in less than three days after I 
am dead." Lear nodded, for he could not speak. 

" Do you understand ? " asked Washington. 

" Yes." 

" 'Tis well," said the dying man. 

About ten minutes before death his breathing 
became easier; he felt his own pulse, and the ex- 
pression of his face changed. One hand presently 



LAST DAYS 107 

fell from the wrist of the other. Lear took it in 
his and pressed it to his bosom. 

Mrs. Washington, who sat near the foot of the 
bed, asked in a firm voice, " Is he gone ? " 

Lear was unable to speak, but made a sign that 
Washington was dead. 

" Tis well," said she ; " all is now over ; I shall 
soon follow him; I have no more trials to pass 
through." 

Washington died on December 14, 1799, in his 
sixty-eighth year. All his neighbors and relatives 
assembled to attend his funeral; the militia and 
Freemasons of Alexandria were present; eleven 
pieces of artillery were brought to Mount Vernon 
to do military honors, and a schooner which lay in 
the Potomac fired minute guns. Washington's horse, 
with saddle, holster, and pistols, was led before the 
coffin by two grooms dressed in black. The body 
was deposited in the old family vault, after short 
and simple ceremonies. Washington was deeply 
mourned all over the United States, for never had 
a man been so beloved by his own countrymen. 

Washington left all of his estates to his wife 
for life; after her death they were to be divided 
between his nephews and nieces, and Mrs. Wash- 
ington's grandchildren. He made his nephew, 
Bushrod Washington, his principal heir, leaving 
Mount Vernon to him. He said that he did this 
partly because he had promised the young man's 
father, his brother, John Augustine, when they were 
bachelors, to leave Mount Vernon to him in case 
he should fall in the French war. He willed that 



108 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

all his negro slaves should be set free on the death 
of his wife. He said that he earnestly wished that 
it might be done before this, but he feared it would 
cause trouble on account of their intermarriages 
with the dower negroes who came to Mrs. Washing- 
ton from her first husband, and whom he had no 
right to free. He willed also that such should be 
comfortably clothed and fed by his heirs. To his 
five nephews he left his swords, with the injunction 
that they were " not to unsheath them for the pur- 
pose of shedding blood, except it be in self-defense, 
or in defense of their country and its rights; and 
in the latter case to keep them unsheathed, and 
prefer falling with them in their hands to the 
relinquishment thereof." 

Washington's life is an open book. He knew 
that he was making history, and he kept careful 
copies of all his most important letters and writings, 
so that it is impossible that there should be doubts 
on any very important point. So jealous was he 
of his own honorable reputation, that his last act as 
President was to file a denial of the authenticity of 
some spurious letters which were attributed to him 
by his political enemies. These letters were first 
published during the Revolution by the English, and 
purported to be written by Washington to Lund 
Washington, to Mrs. Washington, and to John 
Parke Custis. The person who wrote them knew 
something of Washington's private affairs, but he 
made the American general say things which rep- 
resented him as opposed to the independence of the 
colonies. It was asserted that Washington in his 



LAST DAYS 109 

retreat from New York left his servant Billy be- 
hind, and that these papers were found in a hand- 
bag which the valet carried. As it was well known 
in the army that Billy had never been captured, 
Washington did not then think it needful to deny 
having written these letters; but when they were 
brought forward again by his enemies during the 
last years of his Presidency, he was alarmed lest 
they should go down to history as his own. Most 
of Washington's writings which are preserved show 
him to us only as a grave public character, and lives 
of Washington drawn mainly from this source are 
apt to make the great man seem unnaturally cold, 
dignified, remote, and impressive. So usual has 
this view of Washington become, that there is a 
common belief that he never laughed aloud — a belief 
which there are many stories to refute. 

Washington had immense physical courage. In 
all the battles in which he fought he exposed himself 
fearlessly. His moral courage was even greater. 
He never shrank from doing what he thought right 
because it was likely to make him unpopular. Per- 
haps Washington's greatest qualities were his wis- 
dom and prudence. These traits were very im- 
portant in the leader of a young people engaged in a 
revolutionary struggle. He had few brilliant mili- 
tary successes, but it is impossible to say what he 
might not have done had he not been weighed down 
by immense difficulties. His influence over men was 
great, and those who were under him loved him. 
He was never swayed by mean motives, his actions 
were always honorable, and he was generous even 



no WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

to those who were his bitter opponents. Though 
he was a man of action, he thought deeply on many 
subjects. " Never/' said Jefferson, " did nature 
and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man 
great, and to place him in the same constellation 
with whatever worthies have merited from man an 
everlasting remembrance." 



X THE MOUNT VERNON TRIBUTE 1 

WASHINGTON 

The Defender of His Country, The Founder of Liberty, 

The Friend of Man. 

History and Tradition are Explored in Vain for a Parallel 
to His Character. 

IN THE ANNALS OF MODERN GREATNESS, HE STANDS ALONE, 

And the Noblest Names of Antiquity Lose Their Lustre 
In His Presence. Born the Benefactor of Mankind, He 
United All The Qualities Necessary to An Illustrious 
Career. 

Nature Made Him Great; 

He made himself virtuous. 

Called By His Country To The Defence of Her Liberties, 
He Triumphantly Vindicated The Rights of Humanity, 
And on The Pillars of National Independence Laid the 

*The author of this inscription is not known. It has 
been transcribed from a manuscript copy written on the 
back of a picture-frame, in which is set a miniature like- 
ness of Washington, and which hangs in one of the rooms 
of the mansion at Mount Vernon, where it was left some 
time after Washington's death.— H. B. Carrington. 



LAST DAYS in 

Foundations Of A Great Republic. Twice Invested With 
the Supreme Magistracy, By the Unanimous Voice of a 
Free People, He Surpassed In The Cabinet 

THE GLORIES OF THE FIELD, 

And Voluntarily Resigning the Sceptre and the Sword, 
Retired to the Shades of Private Life. A Spectacle So 
New and So Sublime Was Contemplated With the Pro- 
foundest Admiration; And the Name of 

WASHINGTON, 

Adding New Lustre to Humanity, 

Resounded To The Remotest Regions Of the Earth. 

Magnanimous in Youth, 

Glorious Through Life, 
Great in Death, 

His Highest Ambition the Happiness of Mankind, 

His Noblest Victory the Conquest of Himself, 

Bequeathing to Posterity the Inheritance of His Fame, 

And Building His Monument in the Hearts of His 
Countrymen, 

He Lived the Ornament Of the Eighteenth Century, and 
Died Regretted By a Mourning World. 



THE WORDS OF WASHINGTON 

BY DANIEL WEBSTER 

Delivered at the laying of the cornerstone of the new 
zving of the Capitol at Washington, July 4, 1851 

Washington ! Methinks I see his venerable form 
now before me. He is dignified and grave ; but con- 
cern and anxiety seem to soften the lineaments of 



112 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

his countenance. The government over which he 
presides is yet in the crisis of experiment. Not free 
from troubles at home, he sees the world in com- 
motion and arms all around him. He sees that im- 
posing foreign powers are half disposed to try the 
strength of the recently established American Gov- 
ernment. Mighty thoughts, mingled with fears as 
well as with hopes, are struggling within him. He 
heads a short procession over these then naked 
fields; he crosses yonder stream on a fallen tree; 
he ascends to the top of this eminence, whose orig- 
inal oaks of the forest stand as thick around him as 
if the spot had been devoted to Druidical worship, 
and here he performs the appointed duty of the day. 

And now, if this vision were a reality; if Wash- 
ington now were actually amongst us, and if he 
could draw around him the shades of the great pub- 
lic men of his own day, patriots and warriors, 
orators and statesmen, and were to address us in 
their presence, would he not say to us: 

" Ye men of this generation, I rejoice and thank 
God for being able to see that our labors, and toils, 
and sacrifices, were not in vain. You are prosper- 
ous, you are happy, you are grateful. The fire of 
liberty burns brightly and steadily in your hearts, 
while duty and the law restrain it from bursting 
forth in wild and destructive conflagration. Cherish 
liberty, as you love it; cherish its securities, as you 
wish to preserve it. Maintain the Constitution 
which we labored so painfully to establish, and 
which has been to you such a source of inestimable 
blessings. Preserve the Union of the States, ce- 



LAST DAYS 113 

mented as it was by our prayers, our tears, and our 
blood. Be true to God, to your country, and to 
your duty. So shall the whole Eastern world fol- 
low the morning sun, so contemplate you as a na- 
tion; so shall all generations honor you, as they 
honor us; and so shall that Almighty power which 
so graciously protected us, and which now pro- 
tects you, shower its everlasting blessings upon you 
and your posterity ! " 

Great Father of your Country! We need your 
words; we feel their force, as if you now uttered 
them with lips of flesh and blood. Your example 
teaches us, your affectionate addresses teach us, 
your public life teaches us, your sense of the value 
of the blessings of the Union. Those blessings our 
fathers have tasted, and we have tasted, and still 
taste. Nor do we intend that those who come after 
us shall be denied the same high function. Our 
honor, as well as our happiness, is concerned. We 
cannot, we dare not, we will not, betray our sacred 
trust. We will not filch from posterity the treas- 
ure placed in our hands to be transmitted to other 
generations. The bow that gilds the clouds in the 
heavens, the pillars that uphold the firmament, may 
disappear and fall away in the hour appointed by the 
will of God; but, until that day comes, or so long 
as our lives may last, no ruthless hand shall under- 
mine that bright arch of Union and Liberty which 
spans the continent from Washington to California! 



VI 
TRIBUTES 



MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON 1 

BY HENRY B. CARRINGTON 

Modern history, oratory, and poetry are so replete 
with tributes to the memory of Washington, that the 
entire progress of the civilized world for more than 
a century has been shaped by the influence of his 
life and precepts. The memorial shaft at the na- 
tional capital, which is the loftiest of human struc- 
tures, and is inner-faced by typical expressions of 
honor from nearly all nations, is a fit type of his 
surmounting merit. The ceremonies which at- 
tended the cornerstone consecration and signalized 
its completion are no less an honor to the distin- 
guished historian and statesman who voiced the ac- 
clamations of the American people than a perpetual 
testimonial worthy of the subject honored by the 
occasion and by the monument. When the world 
pays willing tribute, and the most ambitious mon- 
arch on earth would covet no higher plaudit than 
that he served his people as faithfully as Washing- 
ton served America, it is difficult to fathom the 
depths of memorial sentiment and place in public 
view those which are the most worthy of study and 
appreciative respect. The national life itself throbs 
through his transmitted life, and the aroma of his 

^rom the "Patriotic Reader." Lippincott Co. 
117 



iii8 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

grace is as consciously breathed by statesmen and 
citizens to-day as the invisible atmosphere which se- 
cures physical vitality and force. Senator Vance 
of North Carolina, thus earnestly commends to the 
youth of America the brightness and beauty of the 
great example : 

Greater soldiers, more intellectual statesmen, and pro- 
founder sages have doubtless existed in the history of the 
English race, perhaps in our own country, but not one who 
to great excellence in the threefold composition of man, 
the physical, intellectual, and moral, has added such exalted 
integrity, such unaffected piety, such unsullied purity of 
soul, and such wondrous control of his own spirit. He 
illustrated and adorned the civilization of Christianity, and 
furnished an example of the wisdom and perfection of its 
teachings which the subtlest arguments of its enemies can- 
not impeach. That one grand, rounded life, full-orbed 
with intellectual and moral glory, is worth, as the product 
of Christianity, more than all the dogmas of all the teach- 
ers. The youth of America who aspire to promote their 
own and their country's welfare should never cease to 
gaze upon his great example, or to remember that the 
brightest gems in the crown of his immortality, the quali- 
ties which uphold his fame on earth and plead for him in 
heaven, were those which characterized him as the patient, 
brave, Christian gentleman. In this respect he was a bless- 
ing to the whole human race no less than to his own coun- 
trymen, to the many millions who annually celebrate the 
day of his birth. 

Such sentiments fitly illustrate the controlling ele- 
ment of character which made the conduct of Wash- 
ington so peerless in the field and in the chair of 
state. His first utterances upon assuming command 
of the American army before Boston, on the 2d of 



TRIBUTES 119 

July, 1775, were a rebuke of religious bigotry and 
an impressive protest against gaming, swearing, and 
all immoral practices, which might forfeit divine aid 
in the great struggle for national independence. 
Succeeding orders, preparatory to the battle of Long 
Island, in August, 1776, breathe the same spirit, — 
that which transfused all his activities, as with 
celestial fire, until he surrendered his commission 
with a devout and public recognition of Almighty 
God as the author of his success. 



FROM THE "COMMEMORATION ODE" 

World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, October 
21, 1892 

by harriet monroe 
Washington 

When dreaming kings, at odds with swift-paced 
time, 
Would strike that banner down, 
A nobler knight than ever writ or rhyme 
With fame's bright wreath did crown 
Through armed hosts bore it till it floated high 
Beyond the clouds, a light that cannot die ! 
Ah, hero of our younger race ! 

Great builder of a temple new! 
Ruler, who sought no lordly place ! 

Warrior, who sheathed the sword he drew ! 



120 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Lover of men, who saw afar 
A world unmarred by want or war, 
Who knew the path, and yet forbore 
To tread, till all men should implore; 
Who saw the light, and led the way 
Where the gray world might greet the day ; 
Father and leader, prophet sure, 
Whose will in vast works shall endure, 
How shall we praise him on this day of days, 
Great son of fame who has no need of praise? 

How shall we praise him ? Open wide the doors 
Of the fair temple whose broad base he laid. 
Through its white halls a shadowy cavalcade 
Of heroes moves o'er unresounding floors — 
Men whose brawned arms upraised these columns 

high, 
And reared the towers that vanish in the sky, — 
The strong who, having wrought, can never die. 



WASHINGTON'S STATUE 

BY HENRY THEODORE TUCKERMAN 

The quarry whence thy form majestic sprung 

Has peopled earth with grace, 
Heroes and gods that elder bards have sung, 

A bright and peerless race ; 
But from its sleeping veins ne'er rose before 

A shape of loftier name 
Than his, who Glory's wreath with meekness wore, 

The noblest son of Fame. 



TRIBUTES 121 

Sheathed is the sword that Passion never stained; 

His gaze around is cast, 
As if the joys of Freedom, newly gained, 

Before his vision passed; 
As if a nation's shout of love and pride 

With music filled the air, 
And his calm soul was lifted on the tide 

Of deep and grateful prayer; 
As if the crystal mirror of his life 

To fancy sweetly came, 
With scenes of patient toil and noble strife, 

Undimmed by doubt or shame; 
As if the lofty purpose of his soul 

Expression would betray — 
The high resolve Ambition to control, 

And thrust her crown away ! 
O, it was well in marble firm and white 

To carve our hero's form, 
Whose angel guidance was our strength in fight, 

Our star amid the storm ! 
Whose matchless truth has made his name divine 

And human freedom sure, 
His country great, his tomb earth's dearest shrine. 

While man and time endure ! 
And it is well to place his image there 

Upon the soil he blest : 
Let meaner spirits, who its councils share, 

Revere that silent guest ! 
Let us go up with high and sacred love 

To look on his pure brow, 
And as, with solemn grace, he points above, 

Renew the patriot's vow ! 



122 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 



TRIBUTES 

Extract from an address by President Cary of the 
Union League Club, at the celebration of Wash- 
ington's Birthday at the Auditorium, Chicago, 
February 22, 1900 

It is needless to dispute with others as to Wash- 
ington's rank in minor things. We know that for 
us and for our country his is the greatest name that 
lives ; that in the grand struggle and march for free- 
dom he was humanity's greatest leader, and that 
through us as a nation he gave to the world its 
chiefest example of republican self-government. 
And now that his greatness is acknowledged and his 
praises sung the world round, our hearts swell with 
pride and gratitude that he is ours ; our countryman ; 
our great American; our Washington. Not the 
safe and invincible general merely, not the wise first 
President, but George Washington, the sublime 
personality, greatest seen when all props and 
scaffoldings of rank and station are torn away. 



From Green's " History of the English People ": 

No nobler figure ever stood in the forefront of a 
nation's life. Washington was grave and courteous 
in address ; his manners were simple and unpretend- 
ing; his silence and the serene calmness of his tem- 
per spoke of a perfect self-mastery; but little there 



TRIBUTES 123 

was in his outer bearing to reveal the grandeur of 
soul which lifts his figure with all the simple majesty 
of an ancient statue, out of the smaller passions, the 
meaner impulses of the world around him. 

It was only as the weary fight went on that the 
colonists learned, little by little, the greatness of 
their leader — his clear judgment, his calmness in the 
hour of danger or defeat; the patience with which 
he waited, the quickness and hardness with which 
he struck, the lofty and serene sense of duty that 
never swerved from its task through resentment or 
jealousy, that never, through war or peace, felt the 
touch of a meaner ambition ; that knew no aim save 
that of guarding the freedom of his fellow-country- 
men ; and no personal longing save that of returning 
to his own fireside when their freedom was secured. 

It was almost unconsciously that men learned to 
cling to Washington with a trust and faith such 
as few other men have won, and to regard him 
with reverence which still hushes us in presence of 
his memory. 



Washington's is the mightiest name of earth — 
long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty ; still 
mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no 
eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add bright- 
ness to the sun, or glory to the name of Washing- 
ton, is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In 
solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked 
deathless splendor leave it shining on. 

Abraham Lincoln. 



i2 4 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Washington cannot be stripped of any part of 
his credit for patriotism, wisdom, and courage; for 
the union of enterprise with prudence ; for integrity 
and truthfulness; for simply dignity of character; 
for tact and forbearance in dealing with men; 
above all for serene fortitude in the darkest hour 
of his cause, and under trials from the perversity, 
insubordination, jealousy, and perfidy of those 
around him, severer than any defeat. 

Goldwin Smith. 



The life of our Washington cannot suffer by a 
comparison with those of other countries who have 
been most celebrated and exalted by fame. The at- 
tributes and decorations of royalty could have only 
served to eclipse the majesty of those virtues which 
made him, from being a modest citizen, a more re- 
splendent luminary. 

Malice could never blast his honor, and envy made 
him a single exception to her universal rule. For 
himself he had lived enough to life and to glory. 
For his fellow-citizens, if their prayers could have 
been answered, he would have been immortal. His 
example is complete, and it will teach wisdom and 
virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in 
the present age, but in future generations, as long 
as our history shall be read. 

John Adams. 



His character, though regular and uniform, pos- 
sessed none of the littleness which may sometimes 



TRIBUTES 125 

belong to these descriptions of men. It formed a 
majestic pile, the effect of which was not inspired, 
but improved, by order and symmetry. There was 
nothing in it to dazzle by wildness, and surprise by 
eccentricity. It was of a higher species of moral 
beauty. It contained everything great and elevated, 
but it had no false or trivial ornament. It was not 
the model cried up by fashion and circumstance : its 
excellence was adapted to the true and just moral 
taste, incapable of change from the varying acci- 
dents of manners, of opinions, and times. General 
Washington is not the idol of a day, but the hero of 
ages. 

Anonymous. 



Washington stands alone and unapproachable like 
a snow peak rising above its fellows into the clear 
air of morning, with a dignity, constancy, and 
purity which have made him the ideal type of civic 
virtue to succeeding generations. 

James Bryce. 



Pale is the February sky, 

And brief the midday's sunny hours; 
The wind-swept forest seems to sigh 

For the sweet time of leaves and flowers. 

Yet has no month a prouder day, 
Not even when the Summer broods 

O'er meadows in their fresh array, 
Or Autumn tints the glowing woods. 



y 



126 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

For this chill season now again 

Brings, in its annual round, the morn 

When, greatest of the sons of men, 
Our glorious Washington was born ! 



Amid the wreck of thrones shall live 
Unmarred, undimmed, our hero's fame, 

And years succeeding years shall give 
Increase of honors to his name. 

William Cullen Bryant. 



Washington, the warrior and legislator! In war 
contending, by the wager of battle, for the independ- 
ence of his country, and for the freedom of the 
human race ; ever manifesting amidst its horrors, by 
precept and example, his reverence for the laws of 
peace and the tenderest sympathies of humanity : in 
peace soothing the ferocious spirit of discord among 
his countrymen into harmony and union ; and giving 
to that very sword, now presented to his country, a 
charm more potent than that attributed in ancient 
times to the lyre of Orpheus. 

John Quincy Adams. 



George Washington may justly be pronounced 
one of the greatest men whom the world has pro- 
duced. Greater soldiers, more intellectual states- 
men, and profounder sages have doubtlessly existed 
in the history of the English race — perhaps in our 
own country — but no one who to great excellence in 



TRIBUTES 127 

each of these fields has added such exalted integrity, 
such unaffected piety, such unsullied purity of soul, 
and such wondrous control of his own spirit. That 
one grand rounded life, full-orbed with intellectual 
and moral glory, is worth, as the product of Chris- 
tianity, more than all the dogmas of all the teachers. 
He was a blessing to the whole human race, no less 
than to his own countrymen — to the many millions 
who celebrate the day of his birth. 

Zebulon B. Vance. 



First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of 
his countrymen, he was second to none in the hum- 
ble and endearing scenes of private life; pious, just, 
humane, temperate, and sincere, uniform, dignified, 
and commanding, his example was as edifying to all 
around him, as were the effects of that example 
lasting. Henry Lee. 



Happy was it for America, happy for the world, 
that a great name, a guardian genius, presided over 
her destinies in war. The hero of America was the 
conqueror only of his country's foes, and the hearts 
of his countrymen. To the one he was a terror, and 
in the other he gained an ascendency, supreme, un- 
rivaled, the triumph of admiring gratitude, the re- 
ward of a nation's love. Jared Sparks. 



The sword of Washington ! The staff of Frank- 
lin! Oh sir, what associations are linked in 



128 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

adamant with these names! Washington, whose 
sword, as my friend has said, was never drawn but 
in the cause of his country, and never sheathed when 
wielded in his country's cause. Franklin, the philo- 
sopher of the thunderbolt, the printing-press, and 
the plowshare. John Quincy Adams. 



Others of our great men have been appreciated, — 
many admired by all. But him we love. Him we 
all love. About and around him we call up no dis- 
sentient and discordant and dissatisfied elements, no 
sectional prejudice nor bias, no party, no creed, no 
dogma of politics. None of these shall assail him. 
When the storm of battle blows darkest and rages 
highest, the memory of Washington shall nerve 
every American arm and cheer every American 
heart. It shall relume that Promethean fire, that 
sublime flame of patriotism, that devoted love of 
country, which his words have commended, which 
his example has consecrated. 

Rufus Choate. 



Where may the wearied eyes repose 

When gazing on the great, 
Where neither guilty glory glows 

Nor despicable state? 
Yes, — one, the first, the last, the best, 
The Cincinnatus of the West, 

Whom envy dared not hate, 
Bequeathed the name of Washington 
To make men blush there was but one. 

Lord Byron. 



TRIBUTES 129 

From " Washington's Vow'' by John Greenleaf 
Whittier, read at the dedication of the Washing- 
ton Arch, at New York City, 1889 

How felt the land in every part 
The strong throb of a nation's heart? 
As its great leader gave, with reverent awe, 
His pledge to Union, Liberty, and Law! 

That pledge the heavens above him heard, 
That vow the sleep of centuries stirred. 
In world-wide wonder listening peoples bent 
Their gaze on Freedom's great experiment. 



Thank God! the people's choice was just! 

The one man equal to his trust. 
Wise without lore, and without weakness good, 
Calm in the strength of flawless rectitude. 



Our first and Best — his ashes lie 
Beneath his own Virginia sky. 
Forgive, forget, oh! true and just and brave, 
The storm that swept above thy sacred grave. 



Then let the sovereign millions where 
Our banner floats in sun and air, 
From the warm palm-lands to Alaska's cold, 
Repeat with us the pledge, a century old! 



130 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Let a man fasten himself to some great idea, some 
large truth, some noble cause, even in the affairs of 
this world, and it will send him forward with energy, 
with steadfastness, with confidence. This is what 
Emerson meant when he said : " Hitch your wagon 
to a star." These are the potent, the commanding, 
the enduring men, — in our own history, men like 
Washington and Lincoln. They may fail, they may 
be defeated, they may perish ; but onward moves the 
cause, and their souls go marching on with it, for 
they are part of it, they have believed in it. 

Henry Van Dyke. 



O name forever to thy country dear! 

Still wreath'd with pride, "still uttered with a tear!" 

Thou that could'st rouse a nation's host to arms, 

Could'st calm the spreading tumult of alarms, 

Of civil discord, awe the threatening force 

And check even Anarchy's licentious course! 

Long as exalted worth commands applause, 

Long as the virtuous bow to virtue's laws, 

Long as thy reverence and honor join'd, 

Long as the hero's glory warms the mind, 

Long as the flame of gratitude shall burn, 

Or human tears bedew the patriot's urn, 

Thy sound shall dwell on each Columbian tongue 

And live lamented in elegiac song ! 

Till some bold bard, inspired with Delphic rage! 

Shall with thy lusters fire his epic page ! 

In Fate's vast chronicle of future time, 
The mystic mirror of events sublime 



TRIBUTES 131 

Where deeds of virtue gild each pregnant page 
And some grand epoch makes each coming age, 
Where germs of future history strike the eye 
And empires' rise and fall in embryo lie, 
Though statesmen, heroes, sages, chiefs abound 
Yet none of worth like Washington's are found! 



Rear to his name a monument sublime ! 

Bid art and genius all their powers bestow, 

And let the pile with life and grandeur glow. 

High on the top let Fame with trumpet's sound, 

Announce his god-like deeds to worlds around! 

Let Pallas lead her hero to the field, 

In Wisdom's train, and cover with her shield. 

A sword present to dazzle from afar 

And flash bright terrors through the ranks of 

war. 
With port august let oak-wreath'd Freedom stand 
And hail him father of the chosen land ; 
With laurels deck him, with due honors greet, 
And crowns and scepters place beneath his feet ; 
Let Peace, her olive blooming like the morn, 
And kindred Plenty with her teeming horn, 
With Commerce, child, and regent of the main, 
While Arts and Agriculture join the train, 
Rear a sad altar, bend around his urn, 
And to their guardian, grateful incense burn ! 
Let History calm, in thoughtful mood reclin'd, 
Record his actions to enrich mankind, 
And Poesy divine his deeds rehearse 
In all the energy of epic verse ! ' 



132 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

To future ages there let Mercy own 
He never from her bosom f orc'd a groan ; 
Here let a statesman, there a reverend sage 
To mark and emulate his steps engage, 
Columbia widow'd, count his virtues o'er, 
Around his tomb her pearly sorrows pour, 
And mild Religion of celestial mien 
Point to her patron's place, in realms unseen ! 
Then stamp in gold the monument above 
The mournful tribute of a nation's love! 
But not alone in scenes where glory fir'd, 
He mov'd, no less, in civic walks admir'd! 
Though long a warrior, choice of human blood, 
As Brutus noble, and as Titus good ! 
To all that formed the hero of the age, 
He joined the patriot and the peaceful sage, 
The statesman powerful and the ruler just, 
No less illustrious than the chief august; 
And to condense his characters in one, 
The god-like Father of his Country shone ! " 
From an old Magazine. 



Hail, brightest banner that floats on the gale, 
Flag of the country of Washington, hail ! 
Red are thy stripes with the blood of the brave; 
Bright are thy stars as the sun on the wave; 
Wrapt in thy folds are the hopes of the free. 
Banner of Washington! — blessings on thee! 

Traitors shall perish and treason shall fail; 
Kingdoms and thrones in thy glory grow pale ! 



TRIBUTES 133 

Thou shalt live on, and thy people shall own 
Loyalty's sweet, when each heart is thy throne ; 
Union and Freedom thine heritage be. 
Country of Washington! — blessings on thee! 
William S. Robinson. 



Point of that pyramid whose solid base 
Rests firmly founded on a nation's trust, 

Which, while the gorgeous palace sinks in dust, 
Shall stand sublime, and fill its ample space. 

Elected chief of freemen ! greater far 

Than kings whose glittering parts are fixed by 
birth— 

Nam'd by thy country's voice for long try'd worth, 
Her crown in peace, as once her shield' in war! 

Deign, Washington, to hear a British lyre, 

That ardent greets thee with applausive lays, 
And to the patriot hero homage pays. 

O, would the muse immortal strains inspire, 

That high beyond all Greek and Roman fame, 
Might soar to times unborn, thy purer, nobler name ! 

Doctor Aikin. 



Had he, a mortal, the failings attached to man ? — 
Was he the slave of avarice? No. Wealth was an 
object too mean for his regard, and yet economy 
presided over his domestic concerns; for his mind 
was too lofty to brook dependence. Was he am- 



134 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

bitious? No. His spirit soared beyond ambition's 
reach. He saw a crown high above all human 
grandeur. He sought, he gained, and wore that 
crown. But he had indeed one frailty — the weak- 
ness of great minds. He was fond of fame, and had 
reared a colossal reputation. It stood on the rock of 
his virtue. This was dear to his heart. There was 
but one thing dearer. He loved glory, but still more 
he loved his country. That was the master passion, 
and with resistless might it ruled his every thought 
and word and deed. 

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. 



Washington! Father and deliverer of his coun- 
try! What sweetness dwells in his name — a name 
sounded by million-tongued fame through her 
golden trumpet into distant worlds. The sooty 
African that traverses Niger's sandy waste — the 
Algerian desperate in fight — the half-lived Lap- 
lander — the Arabian, swift as the wind — the 
Scythian — the inoffensive Brahmin, — have all heard 
it, and when mentioned, revere it. 

William Clark Frazer. 



Three times Washington's character saved the 
country ; once by keeping up the courage of the na- 
tion till the Revolutionary War was ended ; then, by 
uniting the nation in the acceptance of the Federal 
Constitution ; thirdly, by saving it from being swept 
away into anarchy and civil war during the immense 



TRIBUTES 135 

excitement of the French Revolution. Such was 
the gift of Washington, a gift of God to the nation, 
as far beyond any other of God's gifts as virtue is 
more than genius, as character is more than intellect, 
as wise conduct is better than outward prosperity. 
James Freeman Clarke. 



Patriots of America — and military officers of 
every name, view the great example that is set be- 
fore you. Emulate the virtues of Washington, and 
in due time your heads will also be adorned with 
the wreath of honor. Here you learn what is true 
and unfading glory. You will see that it is not the 
man who is led on by the blind impulse of ambition ; 
who rushes into the midst of embattled hosts, merely 
to show his contempt of death ; or who wastes fair 
cities or depopulates rich provinces, — to spread far 
the terrors of his name — who is admired and praised 
as the true hero and friend of mankind; — but the 
man, who, in obedience to the public voice, appears 
in arms for the salvation of his country, shuns no 
perils in a just cause, endeavors to alleviate instead 
of increase the calamities of war, and whose aim is 
to strengthen and adorn the temple of liberty, as 
resting on the immovable basis of virtue and 
religion. The voice of justice and the voice of suf- 
fering humanity forbid us to bestow the palm of 
true valor on the mad exploits of the destroyers of 
mankind. 

Washington's delight was to save, not to destroy. 
His greatest glory is that with small armies and 



136 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

the loss of few lives — compared with the wastes of 
other wars — he made his country free and happy. 

Robert Davidson. 



Brave without temerity, laborious without ambi- 
tion, generous without prodigality, noble without 
pride, virtuous without severity — Washington seems 
always to have confined himself within those limits 
where the virtues, by clothing themselves in more 
lively but more changeable and doubtful colors, may 
be mistaken for faults. Inspiring respect, he in- 
spires confidence, and his smile is always the smile 
of benevolence. 

Marquis Chastelleux. 

God has given this nation many precious gifts; 
but the chief gift of all, the one, we may say, which 
has added something to every other one, is the gift 
of this great soldier, this great statesman, this great 
and good man, this greatest of all Americans, past, 
present — past, if not to come. Our heritage from 
him is illustrious above all others. 

Anonymous. 



Great without pomp, without ambition brave, 
Proud, not to conquer fellow-men, but save; 
Friend to the weak, a foe to none but those 
Who plan their greatness on their brethrens' woes ; 
Aw'd by no titles — undefiTd by lust — 
Free without faction — obstinately just; 
Warm'd by religion's sacred, genuine ray, 
That points to future bliss the unerring way; 



TRIBUTES 137 

Yet ne'er control'd by superstition's laws, 
That worst of tyrants in the noblest cause. 

— From a London Newspaper. 



Extract from a translation of a Dutch Ode to Wash- 
ington. Dr. O'Calla has made a literal translation ; 
Alfred B. Street, of Albany, the poetical translation. 

No lofty monument thy greatness needs ; 

The freedom which America from thee 
Received, and happiness of thy great deeds 

The everlasting monument shall be. 

Thy proud foot trampled on the British chain ; 

But O! beware lest some false foreign power 
Rivet his fetters on thy land again, 

For despots smile while waiting for their hour. 

How deeply touched, Humanity ! your soul, 
When you beheld the grateful tears that rained 

Down a glad Nation's cheek, as Freedom's goal 
Was by that Nation's might in triumph gained. 

O, Fatherland, whoever loves thy fame, 

Sighing shall mourn thy glory lost, when won ; 

Freedom, when leaving thee, lit up her flame 
Within the patriot heart of Washington. 

When Time shall sink in everlasting gloom, 

And Death with Time shall cease for evermore ; 

When the dead burst the cerements of the tomb, 
As the last trumpet breaks in thunder o'er ; 



138 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Then as it feels its pulses once more free, 
Let every heart Columbia claims as son 

Beat first for God, but let its next throb be 
For the eternal bliss of Washington. 



The character of Washington! Who can de- 
lineate it worthily? Modest, disinterested, gener- 
ous, just, of clean hands and a pure heart, self- 
denying and self-sacrificing, seeking nothing for 
himself, declining all remuneration beyond the reim- 
bursement of his outlays, scrupulous to a farthing 
in keeping his accounts, of spotless integrity, scorn- 
ing gifts, charitable to the needy, forgiving injuries 
and injustices, brave, fearless, heroic, with a pru- 
dence ever governing his impulses, a wisdom ever 
guiding his valor, true to his friends, true to his 
country, true to himself, fearing God, no stranger 
to private devotion or public worship, but ever 
recognizing a divine aid and direction in all that he 
accomplished. His magnetism was that of merit, 
superior, surpassing merit ; the merit of spotless in- 
tegrity, of recognized ability, and of unwearied will- 
ingness to spend and be spent in the service of his 
country. 

Robert C. Winthrop. 



One of the best of modern Americans, James Rus- 
sell Lowell, who was born on the same day of the 
month as Washington, February 22d, 1819, wrote 
shortly before his death, to a schoolgirl, whose class 
proposed noticing his own birthday : " Whatever else 



TRIBUTES 139 

you do on the twenty-second of February, recollect, 
first of all, that on that day a really great man was 
born, and do not fail to warm your hearts with the 
memory of his service, and to brace your minds with 
the contemplation of his character. The rest of us 
must wait uncovered till he be served.'' 

Elbridge S. Brooks. 



The fame of Washington stands apart from every 
other in history, shining with a truer luster and a 
more benignant glory. With us his memory re- 
mains a national property, where all sympathies, 
throughout our widely extended and diversified em- 
pire meet in unison. Under all dissensions and 
amid all the storms of party, his precepts and ex- 
ample speak to us from the grave with a paternal 
appeal; and his name — by all revered — forms a 
universal brotherhood, a watchword of our Union. 

Irving and Fiske. 



The soul of Washington was one of the grandest 
of all ages that takes its equal rank with Greek and 
Roman and Hebrew names of renown for humane 
and prime worth, names that seem written not in 
our poor records, but on the sky's arch — names in 
the broad sunshine of whose moral glory, spreading 
through the world, all the little fires which men 
have made with the kindling of words from abstract 
conceptions, — go out. For however otherwise a 
man may be distinguished — unless there be in him a 
spirit of love, devotion, and self-sacrifice, we feel 



i 4 o WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

he lacks the very pith and beauty of manhood ; and 
though he may be a great performer with his pen as 
one plays well on a musical instrument, a Great Be- 
ing he is not. 

Christian Examiner. 



It will be the duty of the historian and the sage 
of all nations to let no occasion pass of com- 
memorating this illustrious man ; and until time shall 
be no more, will a test of the progress which our 
race has made in wisdom and virtue, be derived 
from the veneration paid to the immortal name of 
Washington. 

Lord Brougham. 



The character of Washington may want some of 
those poetical elements, but it possessed fewer in- 
equalities and a rarer union of virtues than perhaps 
ever fell to the lot of any other man. Prudence, 
firmness, sagacity, moderation, an overruling judg- 
ment, an immovable justice, courage that never 
faltered, patience that never wearied, truth that 
disdained all artifice, magnanimity without alloy. 
It seems as if Providence had endowed him in a 
pre-eminent degree with the qualities requisite to 
fit him for the high destiny he was called upon to 
fulfill. 

Irving and Fiske. 



TRIBUTES 141 

WASHINGTON'S NAME IN THE HALL OF 
FAME 

BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER 

Republics are ungrateful, but ours, its best-loved 

son 
Still keeps in memory green, and wreathes the name 

of Washington. 
As year by year returns the day that saw the 

patriot's birth, 
With boom of gun and beat of drum and peals of 

joy and mirth, 
And songs of children in the streets and march of 

men-at-arms, 
We honor pay to him who stood serene 'mid war's 

alarms ; 
And with his ragged volunteers long kept the foe at 

bay, 
And bore the flag to victory in many a battle's day. 

We were a little nation then; so mighty have we 

grown 
That scarce would Washington believe to-day we 

were his own. 
With ships that sail on every sea, and sons in every 

port, 
And harvest-fields to feed the world, wherever food 

is short, 
And if at council-board our chiefs are now discreet 

and wise, 
And if to great estate and high, our farmers' lads 

may rise, 



142 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

We owe a debt to him who set the fashion of our 

fame, 
And never more may we forget our loftiest hero's 

name. 

Great knightly soul who came in time to serve his 
country's need, 

To serve her with the timely word and with the 
valiant deed, 

Along the ages brightening as endless cycles run 

Undimmed and gaining luster in the twentieth cen- 
tury's sun, 

First in our Hall of Fame we write the name all 
folk may ken, 

As first in war, and first in peace, first with his 
countrymen. 



ESTIMATES OF WASHINGTON 

George Washington, the brave, the wise, the good. 
Supreme in war, in council, and in peace. Wash- 
ington, valiant, without ambition; discreet, without 
fear ; confident, without presumption. 

Dr. Andrew Lee. 



More than any other individual, and as much as 
to one individual was possible, has he contributed 
to found this, our wide spreading empire, and to 
give to the Western World independence and free- 
dom. Chief Justice Marshall. 



TRIBUTES 143 

Let him who looks for a monument to Washing- 
ton look around the United States. Your freedom, 
your independence, your national power, your pros- 
perity, and your prodigious growth are a monument 
to him. 

Kossuth. 



More than all, and above all, Washington was 
master of himself. If there be one quality more 
than another in his character which may exercise a 
useful control over the men of the present hour, it 
is the total disregard of self when in the most ele- 
vated positions for influence and example. 

Charles Francis Adams. 



WASHINGTON'S RELIGIOUS CHARACTER 

BY WILLIAM MCKINLEY 

In an Address, February 22, 1898 

Though Washington's exalted character and the 
most striking acts of his brilliant record are too 
familiar to be recounted here, yet often as the story 
is retold, it engages our love and admiration and in- 
terest. We love to record his noble unselfishness, 
his heroic purposes, the power of his magnificent 
personality, his glorious achievements for mankind, 
and his stalwart and unflinching devotion to inde- 
pendence, liberty, and union. These cannot be too 
often told or be too familiarly known. 



144 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

A slaveholder himself, he yet hated slavery, and 
provided in his will for the emancipation of his 
slaves. Not a college graduate, he was always en- 
thusiastically the friend of liberal education. . . . 

And how reverent always was this great man, how 
prompt and generous his recognition of the guiding 
hand of Divine Providence in establishing and con- 
trolling the destinies of the colonies and the Re- 
public. . . . 

Washington states the reasons of his belief in 
language so exalted that it should be graven deep in 
the mind of every patriot : 

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the 
invisible hand which conducts the affairs of man more 
than the people of the United States. Every step by 
which they have advanced to the character of an independ- 
ent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token 
of providential agency; and in the important revolution 
just accomplished in the system of their united govern- 
ment the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consents of 
so many distinguished communities from which the events 
resulted cannot be compared with the means by which 
most governments have been established, without some re- 
turn of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipa- 
tion of the future blessings which the same seems to 
presage. The reflections arising out of the present crisis 
have forced themselves strongly upon my mind. You will 
join me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the 
influence of which the proceedings of a new and free 
government are more auspiciously commenced. 

In his Farewell Address, Washington contends in 
part: 

(i) For the promotion of institutions of learn- 



TRIBUTES 145 

ing; (2) for cherishing the public credit; (3) for 
the observance of good faith and justice toward all 
nations. . . . 

At no point in his administration does Washing- 
ton appear in grander proportions than when he 
enunciates his ideas in regard to the foreign policy 
of the government : 

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; 
cultivate peace and harmony with all ; religion and morality 
enjoin this conduct. Can it be that good policy does not 
equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, 
and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to man- 
kind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people 
always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. 



WASHINGTON 

ANONYMOUS 

We are met to testify our regard for him whose 
name is intimately blended with whatever belongs 
most essentially to the prosperity, the liberty, the 
free institutions, and the renown of our country. 
That name was a power to rally a nation in the hour 
of thick-thronging public disasters and calamities; 
that name shone amid the storm of war, a beacon 
light to cheer and guide the country's friends; its 
flame, too, like a meteor, to repel her foes. That 
name in the days of peace was a loadstone, attracting 
to itself a whole people's confidence, a whole peo- 
ple's love, and the whole world's respect ; that name, 



146 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

descending with all time, spread over the whole 
earth, and uttered in all the languages belonging to 
the tribes and races of men, will forever be pro- 
nounced with affectionate gratitude by everyone in 
whose breast there shall arise an aspiration for 
human rights and human liberty. 

Washington stands at the commencement of a 
new era, as well as at the head of the New World. 
A century from the birth of Washington has 
changed the world. The country of Washington 
has been the theater on which a great part of that 
change has been wrought, and Washington himself 
a principal agent by which it has been accomplished. 
His age and his country are equally full of won- 
ders, and of both he is the chief. 

It is the spirit of human freedom, the new eleva- 
tion of individual man, in his moral, social, and 
political character, leading the whole long train of 
other improvements, which has most remarkably dis- 
tinguished the era. Society has assumed a new char- 
acter; it has raised itself from beneath governments 
to a participation in governments; it has mixed 
moral and political objects with the daily pursuits of 
individual men, and, with a freedom and strength 
before altogether unknown, it has applied to these 
objects the whole power of the human understand- 
ing. It has been the era, in short, when the social 
principle has triumphed over the feudal principle; 
when society has maintained its rights against mili- 
tary power, and established on foundations never 
hereafter to be shaken its competency to govern 
itself. 



VII 

WASHINGTON'S PLACE 
IN HISTORY 



THE HIGHEST PEDESTAL 

BY WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

When I first read in detail, the life of Wash- 
ington, I was profoundly impressed with the moral 
elevation and greatness of his character, and I found 
myself at a loss to name among the statesmen of 
any age or country many, or possibly any, who could 
be his rival. In saying this I mean no disparage- 
ment to the class of politicians, the men of my own 
craft and cloth, whom in my own land, and my own 
experience, I have found no less worthy than other 
men of love and admiration. I could name among 
them those who seem to me to come near even to 
him. But I will shut out the last half century from 
the comparison. I will then say that if, among all 
the pedestals supplied by history for public char- 
acters of extraordinary nobility and purity, I saw 
one higher than all the rest, and if I were required 
at a moment's notice to name the fittest occupant 
for it, I think my choice at any time during the last 
forty-five years would have lighted, as it would now 
light, upon Washington. 



149 



J5o WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 
WASHINGTON IN HISTORY 

BY CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 

No man ever stood for so much to his country 
and to mankind as George Washington. Hamilton, 
Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Jay each repre- 
sented some of the elements which formed the 
Union. Washington embodied them all. 

The superiority of Washington's character and 
genius were more conspicuous in the formation of 
our government and in putting it on indestructible 
foundations than leading armies to victory and 
conquering the independence of his country. " The 
Union in any event " is the central thought of the 
" Farewell Address," and all the years of his grand 
life were devoted to its formation and preservation. 

Do his countrymen exaggerate his virtues? 
Listen to Guizot, the historian of civilization : 
" Washington did the two greatest things which in 
politics it is permitted to man to attempt. He main- 
tained by peace the independence of his country, 
which he conquered by war. He founded a free 
government in the name of the principles of order, 
and by re-establishing their sway." 

Hear Lord Erskine, the most famous of English 
advocates : " You are the only being for whom I 
have an awful reverence." 

Remember the tribute of Charles James Fox, the 
greatest parliamentary orator who ever swayed the 
British House of Commons : " Illustrious man, be- 
fore whom all borrowed greatness sinks into in- 
significance." 



WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY 151 

Contemplate the character of Lord Brougham, 
pre-eminent for two generations in every depart- 
ment of human thought and activity, and then im- 
press upon the memories of your children his delib- 
erate judgment : " Until time shall be no more will a 
test of the progress which our race has made in 
wisdom and virtue be derived from- the veneration 
paid to the immortal name of Washington." 

Blot out from the page of history the names of all 
the great actors of his time in the drama of nations, 
and preserve the name of Washington, and the cen- 
tury would be renowned. 



TO THE SHADE OF WASHINGTON 

BY RICHARD ALSOP 

Exalted chief, in thy superior mind 

What vast resource, what various talents joined! 

Tempered with social virtue's milder rays, 

There patriot worth diffused a purer blaze ; 

Formed to command respect, esteem, inspire, 

Midst statesmen grave, or midst the social choir, 

With equal skill the sword or pen to wield, 

In council great, unequaled in the field, 

Mid glittering courts or rural walks to please, 

Polite with grandeur, dignified with ease ; 

Before the splendors of thy high renown 

How fade the glow-worn lusters of a crown; 

How sink diminished in that radiance lost 

The glare of conquest, and of power the boast. 



152 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Let Greece her Alexander's deeds proclaim; 

Or Caesar's triumphs gild the Roman name ; 

Stripped of the dazzling glare around them cast, 

Shrinks at their crimes humanity aghast; 

With equal claim to honor's glorious meed. 

See Attila his course of havoc lead ! 

O'er Asia's realms, in one vast ruin hurled. 

See furious Zingis' bloody flag unfurled. 

On base far different from the conqueror's claim 

Rests the unsullied column of thy fame; 

His on the woes of millions proudly based, 

With blood cemented and with tears defaced ; 

Thine on a nation's welfare fixed sublime, 

By freedom strengthened and revered by time. 

He, as the Comet, whose portentous light 

Spreads baleful splendor o'er the glooms of night, 

With chill amazement fills the startled breast. 

While storms and earthquakes dire its course 

attest, 
And nature trembles, lest, in chaos hurled, 
Should sink the tottering fabric of the world. 
Thou, like the Sun, whose kind propitious ray 
Opes the glad morn and lights the fields of day, 
Dispels the wintry storm, the chilling rain, 
With rich abundance clothes the smiling plain, 
Gives all creation to rejoice around, 
And life and light extends o'er nature's utmost 

bound. 
Though shone thy life a model bright of praise, 
Not less the example bright thy death portrays, 
When, plunged in deepest wo, around thy bed, 
Each eye was fixed, despairing sunk each head, 



WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY 153 

While nature struggled with severest pain, 
And scarce could life's last lingering powers re- 
tain: 
In that dread moment, awfully serene, 
No trace of suffering marked thy placid mien, 
No groan, no murmuring plaint, escaped thy tongue, 
No lowering shadows on thy brow were hung; 
But calm in Christian hope, undamped with fear, 
Thou sawest the high reward of virtue near, 
On that bright meed in sweetest trust reposed, 
As thy firm hand thine eyes expiring closed, 
Pleased, to the will of heaven resigned thy breath, 
And smiled as nature's struggles closed in death. 



THE MAJESTIC EMINENCE OF WASH- 
INGTON 

BY CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 

In an Address, February 22, 1888 
"Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

As the human race has moved along down the 
centuries, the vigorous and ambitious, the dissenters 
from blind obedience and the original thinkers, the 
colonists and state builders, have broken camp with 
the morning, and followed the sun till the close of 
day. They have left behind narrow and degrading 
laws, traditions, and castes. Their triumphant suc- 
cess is pushing behind every bayonet carried at the 
order of Kaiser or Czar; men, who, in doing their 
own thinking, will one day decide for themselves 
the problems of peace and war. 



154 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

The scenes of the fifth act of the grand drama are 
changing, but all attention remains riveted upon one 
majestic figure. He stands the noblest leader who 
ever was intrusted with his country's life. His pa- 
tience under provocation, his calmness in danger, 
and lofty courage when all others despaired, his 
prudent delays when delay was best, and his quick 
and resistless blows when action was possible, his 
magnanimity to defamers and generosity to his foes, 
his ambition for his country and unselfishness for 
himself, his sole desire of freedom and independ- 
ence for America, and his only wish to return after 
victory to private life, have all combined to make 
him, by the unanimous judgment of the world, the 
foremost figure of history. 



FOR A LITTLE PUPIL 

ANONYMOUS 

"Napoleon was great, I know, 
And Julius Caesar, and all the rest, 

But they didn't belong to us, and so 
I like George Washington the best." 



WASHINGTON'S FAME 

BY ASHER ROBBINS 

It is the peculiar good fortune of this country to 
have given birth to a citizen whose name everywhere 
produces a sentiment of regard for his country it- 



WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY 155 

self. In other countries, whenever and wherever 
this is spoken of to be praised, it is called the coun- 
try of Washington. I believe there is no people, 
civilized or savage, in any place however remote, 
where the name of Washington has not been heard, 
and where it is not respected with the fondest ad- 
miration. We are told that the Arab of the desert 
talks of Washington in his tent, and that Ijis name 
is familiar to the wandering Scythian. He seems, 
indeed, to be the delight of humankind, as their 
beau-ideal of human nature. No American, in any 
part of the world, but has found the regard for him- 
self increased by his connection with Washington, 
as his fellow-countryman; and who has not felt a 
pride, and has occasion to exult, in the fortunate 
connection ? 

A century and more has now passed away since 
he came upon the stage, and his fame first broke 
upon the world; for it broke like the blaze of day 
from the rising sun — almost as sudden, and seem- 
ingly as universal. The eventful period since that 
era has teemed with great men, who have crossed the 
scene and passed off. Some of them have arrested 
great attention — very great. Still Washington re- 
tains his preeminent place in the minds of men; 
still his peerless name is cherished by them in the 
same freshness of delight as in the morn of its glory. 
History will keep a record of his fame; but history 
is not necessary to perpetuate it. In regions where 
history is not read, where letters are unknown, it 
lives, and will go down from age to age, in all future 
time, in their traditionary lore. Who would ex- 



156 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

change this fame, the common inheritance of our 
country, for the fame of any individual which any 
country of any time can boast? I would not; with 
my sentiments I could not. 



WASHINGTON 
The Brightest Name on History's Page 

BY ELIZA COOK 

Land of the West ! though passing brief the record 

of thine age, 
Thou hast a name that darkens all on history's wide 

page! 
Let all the blasts of Fame ring out, — thine shall be 

loudest far; 
Let others boast their satellites, — thou hast the 

planet star. 
Thou hast a name whose characters of light shall 

ne'er depart ; 
Tis stamped upon the dullest brain, and warms the 

coldest heart; 
A war-cry fit for any land where freedom's to be 

won; 
Land of the West ! it stands alone, — it is thy Wash- 
ington ! 

Rome had its Caesar, great and brave, but stain was 

on his wreath ; 
He lived the heartless conqueror, and died the 

tyrant's death. 



WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY 157 

France had its eagle, but his wings, though lofty 

they might soar, 
Were spread in false ambition's flight, and dipped in 

murder's gore. 
Those hero-gods, whose mighty sway would fain 

have chained the waves — 
Who flashed their blades with tiger zeal to make a 

world of slaves — 
Who, though their kindred barred the path, still 

fiercely waded on, 
Oh, where shall be their " glory " by the side of 

Washington ! 

He fought, but not with love of strife; he struck 

but to defend; 
And ere he turned a people's foe, he sought to be a 

friend ; 
He strove to keep his country's right by reason's 

gentle word, 
And sighed when fell injustice threw the challenge 

sword to sword. 
He stood the firm, the wise, the patriot, and the 

sage; 
He showed no deep, avenging hate, no burst of 

despot rage; 
He stood for Liberty and Truth, and daringly led on 
Till shouts of victory gave forth the name of Wash- 
ington. 

No car of triumph bore him through a city filled 

with grief ; 
No groaning captives at the wheels proclaimed him 

victor-chief ; 



158 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

He brjke the gyves of slavery with strong and high 
disdain, 

But cast no scepter from the links when he had rent 
the chain. 

He saved his land, but did not lay his soldier trap- 
pings down 

To change them for a regal vest and don a kingly 
crown. 

Fame was too earnest in her joy, too proud of such 
a son, 

To let a robe and title mask her noble Washington. 

England, my heart is truly thine, my loved, my na- 
tive earth, — 
The land that holds a mother's grave and gave that 

mother birth ! 
Oh, keenly sad would be the fate that thrust me 

from thy shore 
And faltering my breath that sighed, " Farewell for 

evermore ! " 
But did I meet such adverse lot, I would not seek to 

dwell 
Where olden heroes wrought the deeds for Homer's 

song to tell. 
" Away, thou gallant ship ! " I'd cry, " and bear me 

safely on, 
But bear me from my own fair land to that of 

Washington. ,, 



WASHINGTON'S PLACE IN HISTORY 159 



WASHINGTON, THE PATRIOT 

An extract from President McKinley's address on 
Washington, taken from a report in the Cleve- 
land Leader 

Washington and the American Republic are in- 
separable. You cannot study history without hav- 
ing the name of Washington come to you unbidden. 
Bancroft said, " But for Washington the Republic 
would never have been conceived; the Constitution 
would not have been formed, and the Federal Gov- 
ernment would never have been put in operation." 
Washington felt that the Revolution was a struggle 
for freedom, and it was by his strong character and 
wonderful patriotism that the army was held to- 
gether during the prolonged and perilous war. In 
all the public affairs of the colonies Washington was 
the champion of right. His military career has 
never been equaled. He continued at the head of 
his army until the close of the war, overcoming 
jealousies and intrigues, which only the greatest 
courage and the sublimest wisdom could do. The 
ideal he had ever cherished was one in which the 
individual could have the greatest liberty, consistent 
with the country's best interests, and it was with 
this ideal constantly in mind that he carried on the 
war and embodied the principles of liberty within 
the government. Washington had many tempta- 
tions, but the greatest of them came after the vic- 
tory was achieved. At the time when the army was 



160 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

in revolt, when there was dissatisfaction in Con- 
gress, and consternation and distress throughout the 
colonies, it was proposed that the original plan of 
government be abandoned and that Washington be 
chosen as the military ruler or dictator. Washing- 
ton's strong reproval of such proposals and his in- 
sistence upon the stronger government, showed his 
unselfish regard for the country. A weaker man 
might have weakened, a bad one would, but Wash- 
ington was determined to embody into the govern- 
ment all that had been achieved by the war. Wash- 
ington in what he did had no precedents. He and 
his associates made the chart which assisted them 
in guiding the new government. He established 
credit, put the army and navy on a permanent basis, 
fostered commerce, and was ever on the side of 
education. 

Everything that he did demonstrates his marvel- 
ous foresight. We cannot afford to spare the in- 
spiration that comes from Washington. It pro- 
motes patriotism and gives vigor to national life. 
Washington's views on slavery were characterized 
by a high sense of justice and an exalted con- 
science. He was the owner of slaves by inher- 
itance, all his interests were affected by slavery, yet 
he was opposed to it, and in his will he provided for 
the liberation of his slaves. He set the example for 
emancipation. He hoped for, prayed for, and was 
willing to vote for what Lincoln afterward ac- 
complished. 



VIII 
THE WHOLE MAN 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

BY JOHN HALL INGHAM 

This was the man God gave us when the hour 
Proclaimed the dawn of Liberty begun; 
Who dared a deed, and died when it was done, 
Patient in triumph, temperate in power, — 
Not striving like the Corsican to tower 
To heaven, nor like great Philip's greater son 
To win the world and weep for worlds unwon, 
Or lose the star to revel in the flower. 
The lives that serve the eternal verities 
Alone do mold mankind. Pleasure and pride 
Sparkle awhile and perish, as the spray 
Smoking across the crests of cavernous seas 
Is impotent to hasten or delay 
The everlasting surges of the tide. 



HISTORICAL MEMORABILIA OF WASH- 
INGTON 

COMPILED BY H. B. CARRINGTON 

1732. February 22 (February 11, O. S.), born. 
1748. Surveyor of lands at sixteen years of age. 
175 1. Military inspector and major at nineteen 
years of age. 

163 



1 y 



164 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

1752. Adjutant-general of Virginia. 

1753. Commissioner to the French. 

1754. Colonel, and commanding the Virginia 
militia. 

1755. Aide-de-camp to Braddock in his campaign. 
1755. Again commands the Virginia troops. 

1758. Resigns his commission. 

1759. January 6. Married. 

1759. Elected member of Virginia House of 
Burgesses. 

1765. Commissioner to settle military accounts. 

1774. In First Continental Congress. 

1775. In Second Continental Congress. 
1775. June 15. Elected commander-in-chief. 

1775. July 2. In command at Cambridge. 

1776. March 17. Expels the British from 
Boston. 

1776. August 2y. Battle of Long Island. 

1776. August 29. Masterly retreat to New York. 

1776. September 15. Gallant, at Kipp's Bay. 

1776. October 27. Battle of Harlem Heights. 

1776. October 29. Battle near White Plains. 

1776. November 15. Enters New Jersey. 

1776. December 5. Occupies right bank of the 
Delaware. 

1776. December 12. Clothed with " full power." 

1776. December 14. Plans an offensive campaign. 

1776. December 26. Battle of Trenton. 

1777. January 3. Battle of Princeton. 

1777. July. British driven from New Jersey, 
during. 

1777. July 13. Marches for Philadelphia. 



THE WHOLE MAN 165 

1777. September II. Battle of Brandy wine. 

1777. September 15. Offers battle at West 
Chester. 

1777. October 4. Battle of Germantown. 

1778. Winters at Valley Forge. 
1778. June 28. Battle of Monmouth. 
1778. British again retire from New Jersey. 

1778. Again at White Plains. 

1779. At Middlebrook, New Jersey, and New 
Windsor. 

1780. Winters at Morristown, New Jersey. 

1 78 1. Confers with Rochambeau as to plans. 
1781. Threatens New York in June and July. 
1781. Joins Lafayette before Yorktown. 
1781. October 19. Surrender of Cornwallis. 
1783. November 2. Farewell to the army. 
1783. November 25. Occupies New York. 
1783. December 4. Parts with his officers. 
1783. December 2^. Resigns his commission. 
1787. Presides at Constitutional Convention. 
1789. March 4. Elected President of the United 

States. 

1789. April 30. Inaugurated at New York. 
1793. March 4. Re-elected for four years. 

1796. September 17. Farewell to the people. 

1797. March 4. Retires to private life. 

1798. July 3. Appointed commander-in-chief. 

1799. December 14. Died at Mount Vernon. 



166 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF WASHINGTON 1 

BY HENRY MITCHELL MACCRACKEN 

George Washington was a son of Augustine 
Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball, and a 
descendant of John Washington, who emigrated 
from England about 1657, during the protectorate 
of Cromwell. He was born in the English colony 
of Virginia, in Westmoreland County, on February 
22, 1732. His education was simple and practical. 
To the common English instruction of his time and 
home, young Washington added bookkeeping and 
surveying. The three summers preceding his twen- 
tieth year he spent in surveying the estate of Lord 
Fairfax on the northwest boundary of the colony, 
an occupation which strengthened his splendid 
physical constitution to a high point of efficiency, 
and gave him practice in topography, — valuable aids 
in the military campaigning which speedily fol- 
lowed. 

In 1 75 1, at nineteen, he was made Adjutant in 
the militia, with the rank of Major. In the fol- 
lowing year he inherited the estate of Mount 
Vernon. In the winter of 1753-54, at twenty-one, 
he was sent by the Governor of Virginia on a mis- 
sion to the French posts beyond the Alleghanies. 
Soon after his return he led a regiment to the head- 
waters of the Ohio, but was compelled to retreat to 

"From "The Hall of Fame." Published by G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons, New York, 1901. 



THE WHOLE MAN 167 

the colony on account of the overwhelming numbers 
of the French at Fort Duquesne. In Braddock's 
defeat, July 9, 1755, Washington was one of the 
latter's aides, and narrowly escaped death, having 
had two horses shot under him. During the re- 
maining part of the French and Indian War, he was 
in command of the Virginia frontier, with the rank 
of Colonel, and occupied Fort Duquesne in 1758. 
On January 17, 1759, he married a wealthy widow, 
Mrs. Martha Custis, and removed to Mount Ver- 
non. The administration of his plantations in- 
volved a large measure of commerce with England, 
and he himself with his own hand kept his books 
with mercantile exactness. 

Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Washing- 
ton was appointed by the Continental Congress, at 
forty-three years of age, Commander-in-Chief of 
the Armies of the Revolution, and assumed their 
control at Cambridge on July 3, 1775. In 1776 he 
occupied Boston, lost New York, then brilliantly 
restored the drooping spirit of the land at Trenton 
and Princeton. In the year following he lost Phila- 
delphia, and retreated to Valley Forge. Threat- 
ened by the jealousy of his own subordinates, he 
put to shame the cabal formed in the interests of 
Gates, who had this year captured Burgoyne. For 
three years, 1778-80, he maintained himself against 
heavy odds in the Jerseys, fighting at Monmouth 
the first year, reaching out to capture Stony Point 
the next year, and the third year combating the trea- 
son of Arnold. In 1781, he planned the cooping up 
of Cornwallis on the peninsula of Yorktown, with 



i68 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

the aid of the French allies, and received his sur- 
render on October 19th. 

Resigning his commission at Annapolis, Decem- 
ber 23, 1783, he returned to his estate at Mount 
Vernon, but vastly aided the incipient work of 
framing the Constitution by correspondence. In 
May, 1787, he took his seat as President of the Con- 
stitutional Convention at Philadelphia. He was in- 
augurated the first President of the United States 
in April, 1789, after a unanimous election. He was 
similarly reelected in 1793, but refused a third term 
in 1796. In the face of unmeasured vituperation he 
firmly kept the nascent nation from embroiling her- 
self in the wars of France and England. Retiring 
again to Mount Vernon in the spring of 1797, he 
nevertheless accepted, at sixty-six years of age, the 
post of Commander-in-Chief of the provisional 
army raised in 1798 to meet the insolence of the 
French Directorate. In December, 1799, while rid- 
ing about his estates during a snowstorm, he con- 
tracted a disease of the throat, from which he died 
on December 14, 1799. He provided by his will 
for the manumission of his slaves, to take effect on 
the decease of his widow. No lineal descendants 
can claim as an ancestor this extraordinary man. 
He belongs to his country. His tomb is at Mount 
Vernon, and is in keeping of the women of America. 



THE WHOLE MAN 169 

THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 

BY DANIEL WEBSTER 

A Speech Delivered at a Public Dinner, Washing- 
ton, February 22, 1832 

The Power of the Name of Washington 

We are met to testify our regard for him whose 
name is intimately blended with whatever belongs 
most essentially to the prosperity, the liberty, the 
free institutions, and the renown of our country. 
That name was of power to rally a nation, in the 
hour of thick-thronging public disasters and calam- 
ities ; that name shone, amid the storm of war, a 
beacon light, to cheer and guide the country's 
friends; it flamed, too, like a meteor, to repel her 
foes. That name, in the days of peace, was a lode- 
stone, attracting to itself a whole people's con- 
fidence, a whole people's love, and the whole world's 
respect. That name, descending with all time, 
spreading over the whole earth, and uttered in all 
the languages belonging to the tribes and races of 
men, will forever be pronounced with affectionate 
gratitude by everyone in whose breast there shall 
arise an aspiration for human rights and human 
liberty. 

We perform this grateful duty, Gentlemen, at the 
expiration of a hundred years from his birth, near 
the place so cherished and beloved by him, where 
his dust now reposes, and in the capital which bears 
his own immortal name. 



170 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

All experience evinces that human sentiments are 
strongly influenced by association. The recur- 
rence of anniversaries, or of longer periods of time, 
naturally freshens the recollection, and deepens the 
impression, of events with which they are histor- 
ically connected. Renowned places, also, have a 
power to awaken feeling, which all acknowledge. 
No American can pass by the fields of Bunker Hill, 
Monmouth, and Camden, as if they were ordinary 
spots on the earth's surface. Whoever visits them 
feels the sentiment of love of country kindling 
anew, as if the spirit that belonged to the transac- 
tions which have rendered these places distinguished 
still hovered round, with power to move and excite 
all who in future time may approach them. 

Washington's Great Moral Example to the Youth 
of America 

But neither of these sources of emotion equals 
the power with which great moral examples affect 
the mind. When sublime virtues cease to be ab- 
stractions, when they become embodied in human 
character, and exemplified in human conduct, we 
should be false to our own nature if we did not in- 
dulge in the spontaneous effusions of our gratitude 
and our admiration. A true lover of the virtue of 
patriotism delights to contemplate its purest mod- 
els ; and that love of country may be well suspected 
which affects to soar so high into the regions of 
sentiment as to be lost and absorbed in the abstract 
feeling, and becomes too elevated or too refined to 



THE WHOLE MAN 171 

glow with fervor in the commendation or the love 
of individual benefactors. All this is unnatural. It 
is as if one should be so enthusiastic a lover of 
poetry as to care nothing for Homer or Milton ; so 
passionately attached to eloquence as to be indiffer- 
ent to Tully 2 and Chatham ; or such a devotee to the 
art, in such an ecstasy with the elements of beauty, 
proportion, and expression, as to regard the mas- 
terpieces of Raphael and Michel Angelo with cold- 
ness or contempt. We may be assured, Gentle- 
men, that he who really loves the thing itself, loves 
its finest exhibitions. A true friend of his coun- 
try loves her friends and benefactors, and thinks 
it no degradation to commend and commemorate 
them. The voluntary outpouring of the public feel- 
ing, made to-day, from the north to the south, and 
from the east to the west, proves this sentiment to 
be both just and natural. In the cities and in the 
villages, in the public temples and in the family 
circles, among all ages and sexes, gladdened voices 
to-day bespeak grateful hearts and a freshened 
recollection of the virtues of the Father of his 
Country. And it will be so, in all time to come, 
so long as public virtue is itself an object of regard. 
The ingenuous youth of America will hold up to 
themselves the bright model of Washington's ex- 
ample, and study to be what they behold ; they will 
contemplate his character till all its virtues spread 
out and display themselves to their delighted vision ; 
as the earliest astronomers, the shepherds on the 

*At the beginning of the nineteenth century Marcus 
Tullius Cicero was often called Tully. 



.172 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

plains of Babylon, gazed at the stars till they saw 
them form into clusters and constellations, over- 
powering at length the eyes of the beholders with 
the united blaze of a thousand lights. 



A Wonderful Age and Country 

Gentlemen, we are at a point of a century from 
the birth of Washington ; and what a century it has 
been! During its course, the human mind has 
seemed to proceed with a sort of geometric velocity, 
accomplishing for human intelligence and human 
freedom more than had been done in fives or tens 
of centuries preceding. Washington stands at the 
commencement of a new era, as well as at the head 
of the New World. A century from the birth of 
Washington has changed the world. The country 
of Washington has been the theater on which a 
great part of that change has been wrought, and 
Washington himself a principal agent by which it 
has been accomplished. His age and his country 
are equally full of wonders; and of both he is the 
chief. 

If the poetical prediction, uttered a few years be- 
fore his birth, be true; if indeed it be designed by 
Providence that the grandest exhibition of human 
character and human affairs shall be made in this 
theater of the Western world ; if it be true that, 

"The four first acts already past, 
A fifth shail close the drama with the day; 
Time's noblest offspring is the last"; 



THE WHOLE MAN 173 

how could this imposing, swelling, final scene be 
appropriately opened, how could its intense interest 
be adequately sustained but by the introduction of 
just such a character as our Washington? 

The Spark of Human Freedom 

Washington had attained his manhood when that 
spark of liberty was struck out in his own country 
which has since kindled into a flame and shot its 
beams over the earth. In the flow of a century 
from his birth, the world has changed in science, in 
arts, in the extent of commerce, in the improvement 
of navigation, and in all that relates to the civiliza- 
tion of man. But it is the spirit of human freedom, 
the new elevation of individual man, in his moral, 
social, and political character, leading the whole long 
train of other improvements, which has most re- 
markably distinguished the era. Society, in this 
century, has not made its progress, like Chinese 
skill, by a greater acuteness of ingenuity in trifles; 
it has not merely lashed itself to an increased speed 
round the old circles of thought and action; but it 
has assumed a new character; it has raised itself 
from beneath governments to a participation in gov- 
ernments; it has mixed moral and political objects 
with the daily pursuits of individual men ; and, with 
a freedom and strength before altogether unknown, 
it has applied to these objects the whole power of 
the human understanding. It has been the era, in 
short, when the social principle has triumphed over 
the feudal principle; when society has maintained 



174 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

its rights against military power, and established, on 
foundations never hereafter to be shaken, its com- 
petency to govern itself. 



A New Governmental Experiment 

It was the extraordinary fortune of Washington 
that, having been intrusted in revolutionary times, 
with the supreme military command, and having 
fulfilled that trust with equal renown for wisdom 
and for valor, he should be placed at the head of the 
first government in which an attempt was to be 
made on a large scale to rear the fabric of social 
order on the basis of a written constitution, and of 
a pure representative principle. A government was 
to be established without a throne, without an aris- 
tocracy, without castes, orders, or privileges; and 
this government, instead of being a democracy ex- 
isting and acting within the walls of a single city, 
was to be extended over a vast country of different 
climates, interests, and habits, and of various com- 
munions of our common Christian faith. The ex- 
periment certainly was entirely new. A popular 
government of this extent, it was evident, could be 
framed only by carrying into full effect the prin- 
ciple of representation or of delegated power; and 
the world was to see whether society could, by the 
strength of this principle, maintain its own peace 
and good government, carry forward its own great 
interests, and conduct itself to political renown and 
glory. By the benignity of Providence, this experi- 
ment, so full of interest to us and to our posterity 



THE WHOLE MAN 175 

forever, so full of interest, indeed, to the world in 
its present generation and in all its generations to 
come, was suffered to commence under the guidance 
of Washington. Destined for this high career, he 
was fitted for it by wisdom, by virtue, by patriot- 
ism, by discretion, by whatever can inspire con- 
fidence in man toward man. In entering on the un- 
tried scenes, early disappointment and the prema- 
ture extinction of all hope of success would have 
been certain, had it not been that there did exist 
throughout the country, in a most extraordinary de- 
gree, an unwavering trust in him who stood at the 
helm. 

The World Interested in the Experiment 

I remarked, Gentlemen, that the whole world was 
and is interested in the result of this experiment. 
And is it not so? Do we deceive ourselves, or is 
it true that at this moment the career which this 
government is running is among the most attractive 
objects to the civilized world? Do we deceive our- 
selves, or is it true that at this moment that love of 
liberty and that understanding of its true principles 
which are flying over the whole earth, as on the 
wings of all the winds, are really and truly of 
American origin ? 

Importance of the English Revolution of 1688 

At the period of the birth of Washington there 
existed in Europe no political liberty in large com- 
munities, except in the provinces of Holland, and 



i;6 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

except that England herself had set a great ex- 
ample, so far as it went, by her glorious Revolution 
of 1688. Everywhere else, despotic power was pre- 
dominant, and the feudal or military principle held 
the mass of mankind in hopeless bondage. One- 
half of Europe was crushed beneath the Bourbon 
scepter, and no conception of political liberty, no 
hope even of religious toleration, existed among 
that nation which was America's first ally. The 
king was the state, the king was the country, the 
king was all. There was one king, with power not 
derived from his people, and too high to be ques- 
tioned; and the rest were all subjects, with no 
political right but obedience. All above was in- 
tangible power, all below quiet subjection. A re- 
cent occurrence in the French chamber shows us 
how public opinion on these subjects is changed. 
A minister had spoken of the " king's subjects." 
" There are no subjects," exclaimed hundreds of 
voices at once, " in a country where the people make 
the king!" 

Gentlemen, the spirit of human liberty and of 
free government, nurtured and grown into strength 
and beauty in America, has stretched its course into 
the midst of the nations. Like an emanation from 
Heaven, it has gone forth, and it will not return 
void. It must change, it is fast changing, the face 
of the earth. Our great, our high duty is to show, 
in our own example, that this spirit is a spirit of 
health as well as a spirit of power; that its be- 
nignity is as great as its strength ; that its efficiency 
to secure individual rights, social relations, and 



THE WHOLE MAN 177 

moral order, is equal to the irresistible force with 
which it prostrates principalities and powers. The 
world, at this moment, is regarding us with a will- 
ing, but something of a fearful, admiration. Its 
deep and awful anxiety is to learn whether free 
States may be stable, as well as free ; whether pop- 
ular power may be trusted, as well as feared; in 
short, whether wise, regular, and virtuous self-gov- 
ernment is a vision for the contemplation of the- 
orists, or a truth established, illustrated, and 
brought into practice in the country of Washington. 

The United States a Western Sun 

Gentlemen, for the earth which we inhabit, and 
the whole circle of the sun, for all the unborn races 
of mankind, we seem to hold in our hands, for 
their weal or woe, the fate of this experiment. If 
we fail, who shall venture the repetition? If our 
example shall prove to be one not of encourage- 
ment, but of terror, not fit to be imitated, but fit 
only to be shunned, where else shall the world look 
for free models? If this great Western Sun be 
struck out of the firmament, at what other fountain 
shall the lamp of liberty hereafter be lighted? 
Wliat other orb shall emit a ray to glimmer, even, 
on the darkness of the world? 

There is no danger of our overrating or over- 
stating the important part which we are now acting 
in human affairs. It should not flatter our personal 
self-respect, but it should reanimate our patriotic 
virtues and inspire us with a deeper and more 



178 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

solemn sense both of our privileges and of our 
duties. We cannot wish better for our country, 
nor for the world, than that the same spirit which 
influenced Washington may influence all who suc- 
ceed him; and that the same blessing from above, 
which attended his efforts, may also attend theirs. 

Washington's Farewell Address 

The principles of Washington's administration 
are not left doubtful. They are to be found in the 
Constitution itself, in the great measures recom- 
mended and approved by him, in his speeches to 
Congress, and in that most interesting paper, his 
Farewell Address to the people of the United 
States. The success of the government under his 
administration is the highest proof of the soundness 
of these principles. And, after an experience of 
thirty-five years, what is there which an enemy 
could condemn? What is there which either his 
friends, or the friends of the country, could wish 
to have been otherwise? I speak, of course, of 
great measures and leading principles. 

In the first place, all his measures were right in 
their intent. He stated the whole basis of his own 
great character, when he told the country, in the 
homely phrase of the proverb, that honesty is the 
best policy. One of the most striking things ever 
said of him is, that " he changed mankind's ideas 
of political greatness." * To commanding talents, 

1 A remark by Fisher Ames (1758-1808), of Massachu- 
setts, — perhaps the extremest Federalist of his time. 



THE WHOLE MAN 179 

and to success, the common elements of such great- 
ness, he added a disregard of self, a spotlessness of 
motive, a steady submission to every public and pri- 
vate duty, which threw far into the shade the whole 
crowd of vulgar great. The object of his regard 
was the whole country. No part of it was enough 
to fill his enlarged patriotism. His love of glory, 
so far as that may be supposed to have influenced 
him at all, spurned everything short of general ap- 
probation. It would have been nothing to him 
that his partisans or his favorites outnumbered, or 
outvoted, or outmanaged, or outclamored, those of 
other leaders. He had no favorites; he rejected all 
partisanship; and, acting honestly for the universal 
good, he deserved, what he so richly enjoyed, the 
universal love. 

(' His principle it was to act right, and to trust the 
people for support; his principle it was not to fol- 
low the lead of sinister and selfish ends, nor to rely 
on the little arts of party delusion to obtain public 
sanction for such a course. Born for his country 
and for the world, he did not give up to party what 
was meant for mankind, f The consequence is, that 
his fame is as durable as his principles, as lasting 
as truth and virtue themselves. While the hun- 
dreds whom party 'excitement, and temporary cir- 
cumstances, and casual ' combinations, have raised 
into transient notoriety, sink again/like thin bubbles, 
bursting and dissolving into the great ocean, Wash- 
ington's fame is like the rock which bounds that 
ocean, and at whose feet its billows are destined to 
break harmlessly forever. 



180 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

His Conduct of America's Foreign Relations 

The maxims upon which Washington conducted 
our foreign relations were few and simple. The 
first was an entire and indisputable impartiality 
towards foreign States. 1 He adhered to this rule 
of public conduct, against very strong inducements 
to depart from it, and when the popularity of the 
moment seemed to favor such a departure. In the 
next place, he maintained true dignity and unsullied 
honor in all communications with foreign States. 
It was among the high duties devolved upon him to 
introduce our new government into the circle of 
civilized States and powerful nations. Not ar- 
rogant or assuming, with no unbecoming or super- 
cilious bearing, he yet exacted for it from all 
others entire and punctilious respect. He de- 
manded, and he obtained at once, a standing of 
perfect equality for his country in the society of 
nations ; nor was there a prince or potentate of his 
day, whose personal character carried with it, into 
the intercourse of other States, a greater degree of 
respect and veneration. 

He regarded other nations only as they stood in 
political relations to us. With their internal af- 
fairs, their political parties and dissensions, he 
scrupulously abstained from all interference; and, 
on the other hand, he repelled with spirit all such 
interference by others with us or our concerns. His 

1 The famous phrase, " honest friendship with all nations, 
entangling alliances with none," was not Washington's but 
Jefferson's. 



THE WHOLE MAN 181 

sternest rebuke, the most indignant measure of his 
whole administration, was aimed against such an 
attempted interference. He felt it as an attempt 
to wound the national honor, and resented it ac- 
cordingly. 

Foreign Influence a Foe of Republican Government 

The reiterated admonitions in his Farewell Ad- 
dress show his deep fears that foreign influence 
would insinuate itself into our counsels through the 
channels of domestic dissension, and obtain a sym- 
pathy with our own temporary parties. Against all 
such dangers he most earnestly entreats the country 
to guard itself. He appeals to its patriotism, to its 
self-respect, to its own honor, to every considera- 
tion connected with its welfare and happiness, to 
resist, at the very beginning, all tendencies toward 
such connection of foreign interests with our own 
affairs. With a tone of earnestness nowhere else 
found, even in his last affectionate farewell advice 
to his countrymen, he says, " Against the insidious 
wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to be- 
lieve me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free 
people ought to be constantly awake; since history 
and experience prove that foreign influence is one 
of the most baneful foes of republican government." 

The Advantages of American Isolation 

Lastly, on the subject of foreign relations, Wash- 
ington never forgot that we had interests peculiar 
to ourselves. The primary political concerns of 



182 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Europe, he saw, did not affect us. We had nothing 
to do with her balance of power, her family com- 
pacts, or her successions to thrones. We were 
placed in a condition favorable to neutrality during 
European wars, and to the enjoyment of all the 
great advantages of that relation. " Why, then/' 
he asks us, " why forego the advantages of so pe- 
culiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand 
upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our 
destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle 
our peace and prosperity in the toils of European 
ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice ? " 
Indeed, Gentlemen, Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress is full of truths important at all times, and 
particularly deserving consideration at the present. 
With a sagacity which brought the future before 
him, and made it like the present, he saw and 
pointed out the dangers that even at this moment 
most imminently threaten us. I hardly know how a 
greater service of that kind could now be done to 
the community, than by a renewed and wide dif- 
fusion of that admirable paper, and an earnest invi- 
tation to every man in the country to reperuse and 
consider it. Its political maxims are invaluable ; its 
exhortations to love of country and to brotherly af- 
fection among citizens, touching; and the solemnity 
with which it urges the observance of moral duties, 
and impresses the power of religious obligation, 
gives to it the highest character of truly disinter- 
ested, sincere, parental advice. 



THE WHOLE MAN 183 

Washington's Domestic Policy 

The domestic policy of Washington found its 
pole-star in the avowed objects of the Constitution 
itself. He sought so to administer that Constitution 
as to form more perfect union, establish justice, in- 
sure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common 
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the 
blessings of liberty. These were objects interest- 
ing in the highest degree, to the whole country, and 
his policy embraced the whole country. 

Among his earliest and most important duties was 
the organization of the government itself, the choice 
of his confidential advisers, and the various appoint- 
ments to office. This duty, so important and del- 
icate, when a whole government was to be organ- 
ized, and all its offices for the first time filled, was 
yet not difficult to him, for he had no sinister ends 
to accomplish, no clamorous partisans to gratify, 
no pledges to redeem, no object to be regarded but 
simply the public good. It was a plain, straightfor- 
ward matter, a mere honest choice of good men for 
the public service. 

His First Cabinet 

His own singleness of purpose, his disinterested 
patriotism, were evinced by the selection of his first 
cabinet, and by the manner in which he filled the 
seats of justice, and other places of high trust. 
He sought for men fit for offices; not for offices 
which might suit them. Above personal considera- 
tions, above local considerations, above party con- 



i8 4 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

siderations, he felt that he could only discharge the 
sacred trust which the country had placed in his 
hands, by a diligent inquiry after real merit, and a 
conscientious preference of virtue and talent. The 
whole country was the field of his selection. He 
explored that whole field, looking only for whatever 
it contained most worthy and distinguished. He 
was, indeed, most successful, and he deserved suc- 
cess for the purity of his motives, the liberality of 
his sentiments, and his enlarged and manly policy. 

Important Measures of His Administrations 

Washington's administration established the na- 
tional credit, made provision for the public debt, 
and for that patriotic army whose interests and 
welfare were always so dear to him; and, by laws 
wisely framed, and of admirable effect, raised the 
commerce and navigation of the country, almost at 
once, from depression and ruin to a state of pros- 
perity. Nor were his eyes open to these interests 
alone. He viewed with equal concern its agricul- 
ture and manufactures, and, so far as they came 
within the regular exercise of the powers of this 
government, they experienced regard and favor. 

It should not be omitted, even in this slight refer- 
ence to the general measures and general principles 
of the First President, that he saw and felt the full 
value and importance of the judicial department 
of the government. An upright and able admin- 
istration of the laws he held to be alike indis- 
pensable to private happiness and public liberty. 



THE WHOLE MAN 185 

The temple of justice, in his opinion, was a sacred 
place, and he would profane and pollute it who 
should call any to minister in it, not spotless in 
character, not incorruptible in integrity, not com- 
petent by talent and learning, not a fit object of un- 
hesitating trust. 

His Opinion of the Dangers of Party Spirit 

Among other admonitions Washington has left 
us, in his last communication to his country, an ex- 
hortation against the excesses of party spirit. A 
fire not to be quenched, he yet conjures us not to 
fan and feed the flame. Undoubtedly, Gentlemen, 
it is the greatest danger of our system and of our 
time. Undoubtedly, if that system should be over- 
thrown, it will be the work of excessive party spirit, 
acting on the government, which is dangerous 
enough, or acting in the government, which is a 
thousand times more dangerous; for government 
then becomes nothing but organized party, and, in 
the strange vicissitudes of human affairs, it may 
come at last, perhaps, to exhibit the singular para- 
dox of government itself being in opposition to its 
own powers, at war with the very elements of its 
own existence. Such cases are hopeless. As men 
may be protected against murder, but cannot be 
guarded against suicide, so government may be 
shielded from the assaults of external foes, but 
nothing can save it when it chooses to lay violent 
hands on itself. 



186 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

His Love of the Union 

Finally, Gentlemen, there was in the breast of 
Washington one sentiment so deeply felt, so con- 
stantly uppermost, that no proper occasion escaped 
without its utterance. From the letter which he 
signed in behalf of the Convention when the Con- 
stitution was sent out to the people, to the moment 
when he put his hand to that last paper in which 
he addressed his countrymen, the Union, — the 
Union was the great object of his thoughts. In 
that first letter he tells them that to him and his 
brethren of the Convention, union appears to be 
the greatest interest of every true American ; and in 
that last paper he conjures them to regard that 
unity of government which constitutes them one 
people as the very palladium of their prosperity and 
safety, and the security of liberty itself, v He re- 
garded the union of these States less as one of our 
blessings, than as the great treasure-house which 
contained them all. Here, in his judgment, was the 
great magazine of all our means of prosperity; here, 
as he thought, and as every true American still 
thinks, are deposited all our animating prospects, 
all our solid hopes for future greatness. He has 
taught us to maintain this union, not by seeking to 
enlarge the powers of the government, on the one 
hand, nor by surrendering them, on the other; but 
by an administration of them at once firm and mod- 
erate, pursuing objects truly national, and carried 
on in a spirit of justice and equity. 



THE WHOLE MAN 187 

The American Nation Unique 

The extreme solicitude for the preservation of 
the Union, at all times manifested by him, shows 
not only the opinion he entertained of its im- 
portance, but his clear perception of those causes 
which were likely to spring up to endanger it, and 
which, if once they should overthrow the present 
system, would leave little hope of any future bene- 
ficial reunion. Of all the presumptions indulged by 
presumptuous men, that is one of the rashest which 
looks for repeated and favorable opportunities for 
the deliberate establishment of a united government 
over distinct and widely extended communities. 
Such a thing has happened once in human affairs, 
and but once; the event stands out as a prominent 
exception to all ordinary history ; and unless we sup- 
pose ourselves running into an age of miracles, we 
may not expect its repetition. 

Washington, therefore, could regard, and did 
regard nothing as a paramount political interest 
but the integrity of the Union itself. With a united 
government, well administered, he saw that we had 
nothing to fear; and without it, nothing to hope. 
The sentiment is just, and its momentous truth 
should solemnly impress the whole country. If we 
might regard our country as personated in the 
spirit of Washington, if we might consider him as 
representing her, in her past renown, her present 
prosperity, and her future career, and as in that 
character demanding of us all to account for our 
conduct, as political men or as private citizens, how 



188 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

should he answer him who has ventured to talk of 
disunion and dismemberment? Oh how should 
he answer him who dwells perpetually on local in- 
terests, and fans every kindling flame of local 
prejudice? How should he answer him who would 
array State against State, interest against interest, 
and party against party, careless of the continuance 
of that unity of government which constitutes us 
one people ? ) 

The political prosperity which this country has 
attained, and which it now enjoys, has been ac- 
quired mainly through the instrumentality of the 
present government. While this agent continues, 
the capacity of attaining to still higher degrees of 
prosperity exists also. We have, while this lasts, a 
political life capable of beneficial exertion, with 
power to resist or overcome misfortunes, to sustain 
us against the ordinary accidents of human affairs, 
and to promote, by active efforts, every public in- 
terest. But dismemberment strikes at the very be- 
ing which preserves these faculties. It would lay 
its rude and ruthless hand on this great agent it- 
self. It would sweep away, not only what we pos- 
sess, but all power of regaining lost, or acquiring 
new possessions. It would leave the country not 
only bereft of its prosperity and happiness, but with- 
out limbs, or organs, or faculties, by which to exert 
itself hereafter in the pursuit of that prosperity and 
happiness. 



THE WHOLE MAN 189 

Dismemberment of the United States the Greatest 
of Evils 

Other misfortunes may be borne, or their effects 
overcome. If disastrous war should sweep our 
commerce from the ocean, another generation may 
renew it; if it exhaust our treasury, future industry 
may replenish it; if it desolate and lay waste our 
fields, still, under a new cultivation, they will grow 
green again, and ripen to future harvests. It were 
but a trifle even if the walls of yonder Capitol were 
to crumble, if its lofty pillars should fall, and its 
gorgeous decorations be all covered by the dust of 
the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who 
shall reconstruct the fabric of demolished govern- 
ment? Who shall rear again the well-proportioned 
columns of constitutional liberty? Who shall 
frame together the skillful architecture which unites 
national sovereignty with State rights, individual 
security, and public prosperity? No, if these col- 
umns fall, they will be raised not again. Like the 
Coliseum and the Parthenon, they will be destined 
to a mournful, a melancholy immortality. Bitterer 
tears, however, will flow over them than were ever 
shed over the monuments of Roman or Grecian 
art; for they will be the remnants of a more glori- 
ous edifice than Greece or Rome ever, saw, the 
edifice of constitutional American liberty. x 

But let us hope for better things. Let us trust 
in that gracious Being who has hitherto held our 
country as in the hollow of his hand. Let us trust 
to the virtue and the intelligence of the people, and 



190 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

to the efficacy of religious obligation. Let us trust 
to the influence of Washington's example. Let us 
hope that that fear of Heaven which expels all 
other fear, and that regard to duty which transcends 
all other regard, may influence public men and pri- 
vate citizens, and lead our country still onward in 
her happy career. Full of these gratifying anticipa- 
tions and hopes, let us look forward to the end of 
that century which is now commenced. A hun- 
dred years hence, other disciples of Washington 
will celebrate his birth, with no less of sincere ad- 
miration than we now commemorate it. When they 
shall meet, as we now meet, to do themselves and 
him that honor, so surely as they shall see the blue 
summits of his native mountains rise in the horizon, 
so surely as they shall behold the river on whose 
banks he lived, and on whose banks he rests, still 
flowing on toward the sea, so surely may they see, 
as we now see, the flag of the Union floating on the 
top of the Capitol; and then, as now, may the sun 
in his course visit no land more free, more happy, 
more lovely, than this our own country! 



THE WHOLE MAN 191 

MOUNT VERNON, THE HOME OF 
WASHINGTON 

BY WILLIAM DAY 

The following lines were written on the back of a 
picture at Mount Vernon: 

There dwelt the Man, the flower of human kind, 
Whose visage mild bespoke his nobler mind. 

There dwelt the Soldier, who his sword ne'er drew 
But in a righteous cause, to Freedom true. 

There dwelt the Hero, who ne'er killed for fame, 
Yet gained more glory than a Caesar's name. 

There dwelt the Statesman, who, devoid of art, 
Gave soundest counsels from an upright heart; 

And, O Columbia, by thy sons caressed, 
There dwelt the Father of the realms he blessed; 
Who no wish felt to make his mighty praise, 
Like other chiefs, the means himself to raise; 
But there retiring, breathed in pure renown, 
And felt a grandeur that disdained a crown. 



THE UNSELFISHNESS OF WASHINGTON 

BY ROBERT TREAT PAINE 

To the pen of the historian must be resigned the 
more arduous and elaborate tribute of justice to 



192 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

those efforts of heroic and political virtue which 
conducted the American people to peace and lib- 
erty. The vanquished foe retired from our shores, 
and left to the controlling genius who repelled them 
the gratitude of his own country, and the admira- 
tion of the world. The time had now arrived 
which was to apply the touchstone to his integrity, 
which was to assay the affinity of his principles to 
the standard of immutable right. 

On the one hand, a realm to which he was en- 
deared by his services almost invited him to em- 
pire; on the other, the liberty to whose protection 
his life had been devoted, was the ornament and 
boon of human nature. 

Washington could not depart from his own great 
self. His country was free. He was no longer a 
general. Sublime spectacle! more elevating to the 
pride of virtue than the sovereignty of the globe 
united to the scepter of the ages ! Enthroned in the 
hearts of his countrymen, the gorgeous pageantry 
of prerogative was unworthy the majesty of his 
dominion. That effulgence of military character 
which in ancient states has blasted the rights of the 
people whose renown it had brightened, was not 
here permitted, by the hero from whom it emanated, 
to shine with so destructive a luster. Its beams, 
though intensely resplendent, did not wither the 
young blossoms of our Independence; and Liberty, 
like the burning bush, flourished, unconsumed by 
the glory which surrounded it. 

To the illustrious founder of our Republic it 
was reserved to exhibit the example of a mag- 



THE WHOLE MAN 193 

nanimity that commanded victory, of a moderation 
that retired from triumph. Unlike the erratic 
meteors of ambition, whose flaming path sheds a 
disastrous light on the pages of history, his bright 
orb, eclipsing the luminaries among which it rolled, 
never portended " fearful change " to religion, nor 
from its " golded tresses " shook pestilence on 
empire. 

What to other heroes has been glory, would to 
Washington have been disgrace. To his intrepidity 
it would have added no honorary trophy, to have 
waded, like the conqueror of Peru, through the 
blood of credulous millions, to plant the standard 
of triumph at the burning mouth of a volcano. To 
his fame, it would have erected no auxiliary monu- 
ment to have invaded, like the ravager of Egypt, an 
innocent though barbarous nation, to inscribe his 
name on the pillar of Pompey. 



THE GENIUS OF WASHINGTON 1 

BY EDWIN P. WHIPPLE 

The history, so sad and so glorious, which chron- 
icles the stern struggle in which our rights and lib- 
erties passed through the awful baptism of fire and 
blood, is eloquent with the deeds of many patriots, 
warriors, and statesmen; but these all fall into re- 

1 From " Character and Characteristic Men." Published 
by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



i 9 4 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

lations to one prominent and commanding figure, 
towering up above the whole group in unapproach- 
able majesty, whose exalted character, warm and 
bright with every public and private virtue, and 
vital with the essential spirit of wisdom, has burst 
all sectional and national bounds, and made the 
name of Washington the property of all mankind. 
This illustrious man, at once the world's admira- 
tion and enigma, we are taught by a fine instinct to 
venerate, and by a wrong opinion to misjudge. The 
might of his character has taken strong hold upon 
the feelings of great masses of men; but, in trans- 
lating this universal sentiment into an intelligent 
form, the intellectual element of his wonderful na- 
ture is as much depressed as the moral element is 
exalted, and consequently we are apt to misunder- 
stand both. Mediocrity has a bad trick of idealiz- 
ing itself in eulogizing him, and drags him down to 
its own level while assuming to lift him to the skies. 
How many times have we been told that he was 
not a man of genius, but a person of " excellent 
common sense," of " admirable judgment," of 
" rare virtues " ! and, by a constant repetition of 
this odious cant, we have nearly succeeded in di- 
vorcing comprehension from his sense, insight from 
his judgment, force from his virtues, and life from 
the man. Accordingly, in the panegyric of cold 
spirits, Washington disappears in a cloud of com- 
monplaces ; in the rhodomontade of boiling patriots, 
he expires in the agonies of rant. Now, the sooner 
this bundle of mediocre talents and moral qualities, 
which its contrivers have the audacity to call George 



THE WHOLE MAN 195 

Washington, is hissed out of existence, the better 
it will be for the cause of talent and the cause of 
morals ; contempt of that is the condition of insight. 
He had no genius, it seems. O no! genius, we 
must suppose, is the peculiar and shining attribute 
of some orator, whose tongue can spout patriotic 
speeches, or some versifier, whose muse can " Hail 
Columbia," but not of the man who supported 
states on his arm, and carried America in his brain. 
The madcap Charles Townshend, the motion of 
whose pyrotechnic mind was like the whiz of a 
hundred rockets, is a man of genius; but George 
Washington raised up above the level of even emi- 
nent statesmen, and with a nature moving with the 
still and orderly celerity of a planet round the sun, 
— he dwindles, in comparison, into a kind of angelic 
dunce! What is genius? Is it worth anything. 
Is splendid folly the measure of its inspiration? Is 
wisdom that which it recedes from, or tends 
towards? And by what definition do you award 
the name to the creator of an epic, and deny it to 
the creator of a country ? On what principle is it to 
be lavished on him who sculptures in perishing 
marble the image of possible excellence, and with- 
held from him who built up in himself a transcend- 
ent character indestructible as the obligations of 
Duty, and beautiful as her rewards? 

Indeed, if by the genius of action you mean will 
enlightened by intelligence, and intelligence ener- 
gized by will, — if force and insight be its char- 
acteristics, and influence its test, — and, especially, if 
great effects suppose a cause proportionately great, 



ig6 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

that is, a vital causative mind, — then is Washing- 
ton most assuredly a man of genius, and one whom 
no other American has equaled in the power of 
working morally and mentally on other minds. His 
genius, it is true, was of a peculiar kind, the genius 
of character, of thought, and the objects of thought 
solidified and concentrated into active faculty. He 
belongs to that rare class of men, — rare as Homers 
and Miltons, rare as Platos and Newtons, who have 
impressed their characters upon nations without 
pampering national vices. Such men have natures 
broad enough to include all the facts of a people's 
practical life, and deep enough to discern the 
spiritual laws which underlie, animate, and govern 
those facts. Washington, in short, had that great- 
ness of character which is the highest expression 
and last result of greatness of mind; for there is 
no method of building up character except through 
mind. Indeed, character like his is not built up, 
stone upon stone, precept upon precept, but grows 
up, through an actual contact of thought with 
things, — the assimilative mind transmuting the im- 
palpable but potent spirit of public sentiment, and 
the life of visible facts, and the power of spiritual 
laws, into individual life and power, so that their 
mighty energies put on personality, as it were, and 
act through one centralizing human will. This 
process may not, if you please, make the great phi- 
losopher or the great poet ; but it does make the 
great man, — the man in whom thought and judg- 
ment seem identical with volition, — the man whose 
vital expression is not in words, but deeds, — the 



THE WHOLE MAN 197 

man whose sublime ideas issue necessarily in 
sublime acts, not in sublime art. It was because 
Washington's character was thus composed of the 
inmost substance and power of facts and principles, 
that men instinctively felt the perfect reality of his 
comprehensive manhood. This reality enforced 
universal respect, married strength to repose, and 
threw into his face that commanding majesty which 
made men of the speculative audacity of Jefferson, 
and the lucid genius of Hamilton, recognize, with 
unwonted meekness, his awful superiority. 



WASHINGTON'S SERVICE TO EDUCATION 

BY CHARLES W. E. CHAPIN 

Washington's ideas concerning education have 
the approval of educators of our day. He was in 
advance of his age; it is a question if we have 
quite caught up with him. Of the two plans of his 
mature years and ripened experience, one has been 
realized, the West Point idea, which brings to- 
gether, from every State and Territory of the 
Union, young men to be trained for military service ; 
that other plan of a National University, with 
schools of administration and statesmanship, is yet 
being considered. 

Washington shared neither the least nor the most 
of the educational advantages of his colony. The 
elder brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, had 



ig8 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

realized their father's hopes, and had been sent to 
England for their schooling as he had been for 
his, but the early death of the father defeated that 
plan for George, so he obtained the early prepara- 
tion for his life work from the " home university," 
over which Mary Washington presided, a loving 
and wise head. At times George was with his 
brother Augustine at Bridges Creek, to be near 
the best parish school, and then he was at home; 
but all the time he was advancing rapidly in that 
school of men and affairs. " He was above all 
things else, a capable, executive boy," says Woodrow 
Wilson in his biography. " He loved mastery and 
he relished acquiring the most effective means of 
mastery in all practical affairs. His very exercise 
books, used at school, gave proof of it."; As he 
did these things with care and industry, so he fol- 
lowed with zest the spirited diversions of the hunt 
and the life in fields and forests. Very early he put 
his knowledge of the surveyor's art to practical test, 
and applied the chain and logarithm to the reaches 
of the family lands. His skill came to the notice 
of Lord Fairfax, who wished to know the extent 
of the lands he had inherited in the New World. 
Washington, though but sixteen, was equal to the 
task; in a month's time, after fording swollen 
streams and penetrating the forests, he presented to 
Lord Fairfax maps and figures which showed him 
the extent and boundaries of his estate. For three 
years Washington followed this fascinating yet per- 
ilous work, and then, being strongly recommended 
by Lord Fairfax, and himself being able to show 



THE WHOLE MAN 199 

in clear, round style his mastery of the art and 
science of surveying, he received in 1748 from the 
President of William and Mary College the appoint- 
ment as official surveyor for Culpeper County ; such 
a certificate was equivalent to a degree of civil en- 
gineer in those days. 

Thus from an institution of higher learning, 
George Washington received the first public recog- 
nition of service, and of merit. It was the turning 
point in his life; it opened up fully the path to 
those experiences which equipped him for that ef- 
ficient service in the French and Indian War, and 
the Revolution. 

The honorable position of Chancellor had been 
held by the Bishops of London from the foundation 
of the College in 1693 to the Revolution. The old 
statute defining the duties of the office is interest- 
ing : " The Chancellor is to be the Maecenas, or 
patron of the College; such a one as by his favor 
with the King and by his interest with all other 
persons in England may be enabled to help in all the 
College affairs. His advice is to be taken, espe- 
cially in such arduous and momentous affairs as 
the College shall have to do in England. If the 
College has any petitions at any time to the King, 
let them be presented by the Chancellor." We can 
imagine a grim smile on Washington's countenance 
as he read the provisions made concerning the func- 
tions of his office, especially that of conferring with 
the King. 

In his letter to Samuel Griffin, Esq., Rector of the 
College, accepting his appointment, he says : " In- 



200 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

fluenced by a heartfelt desire to promote the cause 
of science in general and the prosperity of the Col- 
lege of William and Mary in particular, I accept 
the office of Chancellor in the same, and request 
you will be pleased to give official notice thereof to 
the learned body who have thought proper to honor 
me with the appointment. I confide fully in their 
strenuous endeavors for placing the system of edu- 
cation on such a basis as will render it most bene- 
ficial to the State, and the Republic of letters, as 
well as to the more extensive interests of humanity 
and religion." This call to the leadership of edu- 
cation in his own State antedated his election to 
the Presidency of the new Republic by a year, and 
he continued in that service to the College of 
William and Mary until the close of his life. 

About the close of the Revolution, the State of 
Maryland began to broaden its educational institu- 
tions. The School of Kent County at Chestertown 
was placed in 1780 under the charge of the Rev. Dr. 
William Smith, the minister of the parish who had 
been President of the College of Philadelphia until 
its charter was revoked. Dr. Smith conducted the 
Academy at Chestertown with great energy and 
ability, and in 1782 the Visitors of the Academy 
asked that it be made a college ; the legislature made 
provision that when a total endowment of five thou- 
sand pounds currency should be provided for the 
school, it should be incorporated into a college, 
with enlarged courses of study and suitable pro- 
fessors, and should be denominated Washington 
College, " in honorable and perpetual memory of 



THE WHOLE MAN 201 

his Excellency, General Washington, the illustrious 
and virtuous Commander-in-Chief, of the armies of 
the United States." In five months the energetic 
trustees raised $14,000; Washington contributed 
fifty guineas. The College was at once incor- 
porated, and in the following year, at its first com- 
mencement, its endowment had increased to $28,000. 
It was the first college in Maryland; Washington 
was elected as a member of the first Board of Vis- 
itors, but being with the army at Newburgh, was 
unable to take his place on the Board, until the 
second commencement of the College in 1784. Five 
years later, the College bestowed upon Washington 
the degree of Doctor of Laws; his letter of ac- 
knowledgment expressed the sentiment that, " in 
civilized societies the welfare of the state and the 
happiness of the people are advanced or retarded in 
proportion as the morals and education of the youth 
are attended to. I cannot forbear on this occasion 
to express the satisfaction which I feel on seeing 
the increase of our seminaries of learning through 
the extensive country, and the general wish which 
seems to prevail for establishing and maintaining 
these valuable institutions." The old College has 
suffered by fire, and the vicissitudes of fortune, yet 
it has lived through the years, and is to-day doing a 
prosperous and noble work. 

The Potomac and Virginia Company, and the 
James River Company were among those organiza- 
tions for transportation which Washington aided 
for the opening up of the country. There was a 
recognition of his services to the country, and the 



202 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

legislature of Virginia in 1785, through Patrick 
Henry, then Governor, gave Washington fifty 
shares in the Potomac and Virginia Company, and 
one hundred shares in the James River Company. 
Washington replied that he had resolutely shut his 
hand against every pecuniary recompense during 
the revolutionary struggle; and that he could not 
change that position. He added that, if the legis- 
lature would allow him to turn the gifts from his 
own private emolument to objects of a public na- 
ture, he would endeavor to select objects which 
would meet the most enlightened and patriotic views 
of the Assembly of Virginia. The proposition met 
with hearty approval, and Washington held the 
stock in both companies, awaiting the time when 
proper and worthy objects should be found for the 
benefactions. 

In 1785 he proposed to Edmund Randolph and 
Thomas Jefferson, that the revenue of the stock 
in those companies be used for the establishment of 
two schools, one upon each river, for the education 
of poor children, particularly those whose parents 
had fallen in the struggle for liberty. The idea was 
a noble one, yet Washington's call to the large 
service of the College of William and Mary as its 
Chancellor, and to the country as its President, pre- 
vented him from carrying it out. He carried out 
the spirit of his idea by giving fifty pounds a year 
for the instruction of poor children in Alexandria, 
and by making large provision for the education of 
the sons of soldiers. In 1783 he honored a Prince- 
ton commencement by his presence, and bestowed 



THE WHOLE MAN 203 

upon the College a gift of fifty pounds. A tour 
through Georgia in 1790 gave him opportunity to 
visit and approve of the Academy of Augusta. 
About the same time the indomitable Kirkland, mis- 
sionary to the Iroquois, was trying every source 
of influence and money in behalf of an academy in 
Oneida County, New York, to be located near the 
old Property Line, where both the sons of the 
settlers and the children of the forest might be edu- 
cated. His visit to Philadelphia secured a gener- 
ous benefaction from Washington, and at the same 
time his influence and that of others, so that 
Congress appropriated $15,000 yearly to " in- 
struct the Iroquois in agriculture and the useful 
arts." 

Washington had now matured his idea of a na- 
tional university. He was ready to lay it before 
the country, and to be the first contributor to its 
endowment. Virginia was taking new interest in 
its schools and the influence of William and Mary 
College was widening: there was a demand for 
more thoroughly equipped academies. The school 
at Augusta, which the Revolution had been the 
means of christening Liberty Hall, had become 
prominent. In 1796 Washington settled upon Lib- 
erty Hall as the proper recipient of the one hun- 
dred shares in the James River Company to aug- 
ment its endowment. In accepting the gift the 
name of the academy was changed, and the trustees 
were able to sign themselves, " the trustees of 
Washington Academy, late Liberty Hall." Wash- 
ington was greatly touched by the honor, and 



204 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

ascribed his ability to make the donation to " the 
generosity of the Legislature of the Commonwealth 
of Virginia." 

The institution prospered. About 1802 a new 
charter was granted with larger powers, under the 
name of Washington College. John Robinson, a 
soldier of the Revolution under Washington, gave, 
in emulation of his illustrious commander, his entire 
estate to Washington College; from it the trustees 
realized $40,000 toward the endowment. The stock 
of the James River Company, which Washington 
transferred to the College, to-day yields an in- 
come of six per cent, on $50,000, and, after prosper- 
ing years, the College has now a productive endow- 
ment of $600,000, and a property worth $800,000. 
The country has passed through many critical peri- 
ods since Washington's day, and the Union is 
stronger than ever. The old College is a witness 
to the all-healing power of time and kinship, for its 
name has again been added to: it is Washington 
and Lee University now; and thus is joined with 
the name of the Father of His Country the name of 
one whom the South has ever loved, whom the 
North long since forgave, and whose memory the 
country will ever cherish. 

The Revolutionary War was a costly experiment 
of education in military affairs in the field; it cost 
heavily in blood and treasure. Washington realized 
that preparation for service in the army must be 
had in military schools. 

From the very beginning of the war until the 
end of his life, by official message and by letter, 



THE WHOLE MAN 205 

Washington urged the importance of military in- 
struction. In his message to Congress in 1796 he 
said : " The institution of a military academy is 
recommended by cogent reasons. However pacific 
the general policy of a nation may be, it ought never 
to be without an adequate stock of military 
knowledge for emergencies. In proportion as the 
observance from the necessity of practicing the rules 
of the military art, ought to be its care in preserv- 
ing and transmitting by proper establishments the 
knowledge of that art. A thorough examination of 
the subject will evince that the art of war is ex- 
tensive and complicated; that it demands much 
previous study; and that the possession of it in 
its most important and perfect state is always of 
great moment to the security of a nation.'' Con- 
gress did make provision for the carrying out of 
many of the President's recommendations; it 
created a new grade in the army, that of Cadet, to 
which young men exclusively were admitted, and 
money was appropriated for their education in the 
science of war that they might be prepared for posi- 
tions of command. But Congress delayed the po- 
tential part of the plan; it did not collect the regi- 
ment of artillerists and engineers at a single sta- 
tion, nor did it erect buildings for the uses of edu- 
cation. 

The idea did not die; in 1802 Congress made the 
first of those provisions for a military academy 
with the plan and scope which Washington had so 
persistently urged. West Point was chosen as the 
place of its location. That academy has more 



206 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

than once demonstrated the wisdom of the far- 
seeing Washington. 

West Point is the realization of Washington's 
plans for a national school of military instruction. 
To-day it represents to the country the important 
features of that plan for a National University. By 
his last will and testament, Washington bequeathed 
the fifty shares of stock in the Potomac Company 
to the establishment of a National University in the 
central part of the United States; he made provi- 
sion that until such a university should be founded 
the fund should be self-accumulating by the use of 
the dividends in the purchase of more stock, to still 
further augment the endowment fund. In the 
transfers and changes of commercial life apparent 
record of that stock has been lost, yet that last 
will bequeathed an ideal which in indirect ways is 
still inspiring our national educational system. 

Let us take our place by the side of a student 
of our national history and institutions, as after a 
walk through the buildings across that noble plain 
at West Point he sits down to meditate, on the 
granite steps of the " Battle Monument." He is 
where the history of yesterday abides, but about him 
is represented the strength and life of the nation, 
and the strong military figures of officers, cadets, 
and soldiers from every section of our country. He 
feels the wisdom of that great desire of Washing- 
ton's that the life and thought of the widely sep- 
arated sections of the rising empire should become 
homogeneous and unified by the meeting of the 
young men of the land in a central school, during 



THE WHOLE MAN 207 

the years of training for the country's service at 
arms. This student of history would feel how that 
hope had been fulfilled by the loyal service which 
the sons of West Point to so large a degree rendered 
the Union in its days of peril ; and with deep grati- 
tude would he acknowledge that enthusiastic loy- 
alty with which the North and South, the East and 
West, as represented at West Point and throughout 
the country, rushed to its service to release those 
islands of the sea from the thraldom and tyranny 
of a medieval monarchy. 

Then the vista of the future would open before 
him, and he would see that larger hope and plan 
of Washington's realized in the city of his name. 
There in that center in the Nation's life he would 
see young men assembling in the national schools 
of administration, commerce, consular service, and 
finance, to study questions of government and in- 
ternational relations. He would see reaching to 
all the lands of earth a peace more beautiful than 
that of the river below him ; and wider and deeper 
than that Western ocean where now is flying our 
flag of hope and promise. 



2o8 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 



ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF THE 
WASHINGTON MONUMENT 

BY JOHN W. DANIEL 

Delivered in the Hall of the House of Representa- 
tives, February 21, 1883 

Mr. President of the United States, Senators, 
Representatives, Judges, Mr. Chairman, and My 
Countrymen: — Alone in its grandeur stands forth 
the character of Washington in history; alone like 
some peak that has no fellow in the mountain range 
of greatness. 

" Washington,'' said Guizot, " Washington did 
the two greatest things which in politics it is per- 
mitted to man to attempt. He maintained by peace 
the independence of his country, which he had con- 
quered by war. He founded a free government 
in the name of the principles of order and by re- 
establishing their sway." Washington did, indeed, 
do these things. But he did more. Out of discon- 
nected fragments, he molded a whole, and made 
it a country. He achieved his country's independ- 
ence by the sword. He maintained that independ- 
ence by peace as by war. He finally established 
both his country and its freedom in an enduring 
frame of constitutional government, fashioned to 
make liberty and union one and inseparable. These 
four things together constitute the unexampled 
achievement of Washington. 



THE WHOLE MAN 209 

The world has ratified the profound remark of 
Fisher Ames, that " he changed mankind's ideas of 
political greatness." It has approved the opinion 
of Edward Everett, that he was " the greatest of 
good men, and the best of great men." It has felt 
for him, with Erskine, " an awful reverence." It 
has attested the declaration of Brougham that 
he was the greatest man of his own or of any 
age." . . . 

Conquerors who have stretched your scepter over 
boundless territories ; founders of empires who have 
held your dominions in the reign of law ; reformers 
who have cried aloud in the wilderness of op- 
pression; teachers who have striven to cast down 
false doctrines, heresy, and schism; statesmen 
whose brains have throbbed with mighty plans for 
the amelioration of human society; scar-crowned 
vikings of the sea, illustrious heroes of the land, 
who have borne the standards of siege and battle, 
come forth in bright array from your glorious 
fanes, and would ye be measured by the measure 
of his stature? Behold you not in him a more 
illustrious and more venerable presence? States- 
man, soldier, patriot, sage, reformer of creeds; 
teacher of truth and justice, achiever and pre- 
server of liberty, the first of men, founder and 
saviour of his country, father of his people — this 
is he, solitary and unapproachable in his grandeur! 

Oh, felicitous Providence that gave to America 
our Washington ! 

High soars into the sky to-day, higher than the 
pyramid or the dome of St. Paul's or St. Peter's — 



2io WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

the loftiest and most imposing structure that man 
has ever reared — high soars into the sky to where 
— " Earth highest yearns to meet a star " the monu- 
ment which " We the people of the United States " 
have uplifted to his memory. It is a fitting monu- 
ment, more fitting than any statue. For his image 
could only display him in some one phase of his 
varied character. So art has fitly typified his ex- 
alted life in yon plain, lofty shaft. Such is his 
greatness, that only by a symbol could it be repre- 
sented. As Justice must be blind in order to be 
whole in contemplation, so History must be silent 
that by this mighty sign she may disclose the 
amplitude of her story. 

No sum could now be made of Washington's 
character that did not exhaust language of its 
tributes and repeat virtue by all her names. No 
sum could be made of his achievements that did not 
unfold the history of his country and its institutions 
— the history of his age and its progress — the his- 
tory of man and his destiny to be free. But, 
whether character or achievement be regarded, the 
riches before us only expose the poverty of praise. 
So clear was he in his great office that no ideal of 
the leader or ruler can be formed that does not 
shrink by the side of the reality. And so has he 
impressed himself upon the minds of men, that no 
man can justly aspire to be the chief of a great, free 
people, who does not adopt his principles and em- 
ulate his example. We look with amazement on 
such eccentric characters as Alexander, Csesar, 



THE WHOLE MAN 211 

Cromwell, Frederick, and Napoleon, but when 
Washington's face rises before us, instinctively 
mankind exclaims : " This is the man for nations 
to trust and reverence, and for rulers to follow." 

Drawing his sword from patriotic impulse, with- 
out ambition and without malice, he wielded it with- 
out vindictiveness, and sheathed it without reproach. 
All that humanity could conceive he did to sup- 
press the cruelties of war and soothe its sorrows. 
He never struck a coward's blow. To him age, in- 
fancy, and helplessness were ever sacred. He tol- 
erated no extremity unless to curb the excesses of 
his enemy, and he never poisoned the sting of de- 
feat by the exultation of the conqueror. 

Peace he welcomed as a heaven-sent herald of 
friendship; and no country has given him greater 
honor than that which he defeated; for England 
has been glad to claim him as the scion of her 
blood, and proud, like our sister American States, 
to divide with Virginia the honor of producing 
him. 

Fascinated by the perfection of the man, we are 
loath to break the mirror of admiration into the 
fragments of analysis. But, lo! as we attempt it, 
every fragment becomes the miniature of such sub- 
limity and beauty that the destructive hand can only 
multiply the forms of immortality. 

Grand and manifold as were its phases, there 
is yet no difficulty in understanding the character 
of Washington. He was no Veiled Prophet. He 
never acted a part. Simple, natural, and unaffected, 
his life lies before us — a fair and open manuscript. 



212 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

He disdained the arts which wrap power in mystery 
in order to magnify it. He practiced the profound 
diplomacy of truthful speech — the consummate tact 
of direct attention. Looking ever to the All-Wise 
Disposer of events, he relied on that Providence 
which helps men by giving them high hearts and 
hopes to help themselves with the means which 
their Creator has put at their service. There was 
no infirmity in his conduct over which charity must 
fling its veil; no taint of selfishness from which 
purity averts her gaze; no dark recess of intrigue 
that must be lit up with colored panegyric; no 
subterranean passage to be trod in trembling, lest 
there be stirred the ghost of a buried crime. 

A true son of nature was George Washington — 
of nature in her brightest intelligence and noblest 
mold; and the difficulty, if such there be, in com- 
prehending him, is only that of reviewing from a 
single standpoint the vast procession of those civil 
and military achievements which filled nearly half 
a century of his life, and in realizing the magnitude 
of those qualities which were requisite to their per- 
formance — the difficulty of fashioning in our minds 
a pedestal broad enough to bear the towering figure, 
whose greatness is diminished by nothing but the 
perfection of its proportions. If his exterior — in 
calm, grave, and resolute repose — ever impressed 
the casual observer as austere and cold, it was only 
because he did not reflect that no great heart like 
his could have lived unbroken unless bound by iron 
nerves in an iron frame. The Commander of 
Armies, the Chief of a People, the Hope of Na- 



THE WHOLE MAN 213 

tions could not wear his heart upon his sleeve ; and 
yet his sternest will could not conceal its high and 
warm pulsations. Under the enemy's guns at Bos- 
ton he did not forget to instruct his agent to ad- 
minister generously of charity to his needy neigh- 
bors at home. The sufferings of women and chil- 
dren thrown adrift by war, and of his bleeding 
comrades, pierced his soul. And the moist eye and 
trembling voice with which he bade farewell to his 
veterans bespoke the underlying tenderness of his 
nature, even as the storm-wind makes music in its 
undertones. 

Disinterested patriot, he would receive no pay 
for his military services. Refusing gifts, he was 
glad to guide the benefaction of a grateful State 
to educate the children of his fallen braves in the 
institution at Lexington which yet bears his name. 
Without any of the blemishes that mark the tyrant, 
he appealed so loftily to the virtuous elements in 
man, that he almost created the qualities which his 
country needed to exercise; and yet he was so 
magnanimous and forbearing to the weaknesses of 
others, that he often obliterated the vices of which 
he feared the consequences. But his virtue was 
more than this. It was of that daring, intrepid 
kind that, seizing principle with a giant's grasp, 
assumes responsibility at any hazard, suffers* sacri- 
fice without pretense of martyrdom, bears calumny 
without reply, imposes superior will and under- 
standing on all around it, capitulates to no un- 
worthy triumph, but must carry all things at the 
point of clear and blameless conscience. Scorning 



2i 4 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

all manner of meanness and cowardice, his bursts 
of wrath at their exhibition heighten our admira- 
tion for the noble passions which were kindled by 
the aspirations and exigencies of virtue. 

Invested with the powers of a Dictator, the coun- 
try bestowing them felt no distrust of his integrity ; 
he, receiving them, gave assurance that, as the 
sword was the last support of Liberty, so it should 
be the first thing laid aside when Liberty was won. 
And keeping the faith in all things, he left mankind 
bewildered with the splendid problem whether to 
admire him most for what he was or what he would 
not be. Over and above all his virtues was the 
matchless manhood of personal honor to which Con- 
fidence gave in safety the key of every treasure 
on which Temptation dared not smile, on which 
Suspicion never cast a frown. And why prolong 
the catalogue ? " If you are presented with medals 
of Caesar, of Trajan, or Alexander, on examining 
their features you are still led to ask what was their 
stature and the forms of their persons; but if you 
discover in a heap of ruins the head or the limb 
of an antique Apollo, be not curious about the other 
parts, but rest assured that they were all con- 
formable to those of a god." 

" Rome to America " is the eloquent inscription 
on one stone of your colossal shaft — taken from 
the ancient Temple of Peace that once stood hard 
by the Palace of the Csesars. Uprisen from the 
sea of Revolution, fabricated from the ruins of bar- 
tered bastiles, and dismantled palaces of unright- 



THE WHOLE MAN 215 

eous, unhallowed power, stood forth now the Re- 
public of republics, the Nation of nations, the Con- 
stitution of constitutions, to which all lands and 
times and tongues had contributed of their wisdom, 
and the priestess of Liberty was in her holy temple. 

When Marathon had been fought and Greece 
kept free, each of the victorious generals voted him- 
self to be first in honor, but all agreed that Miltiades 
was second. When the most memorable struggle 
for the rights of human nature of which time holds 
record was thus happily concluded in the muniment 
of their preservation, whoever else was second, 
unanimous acclaim declared that Washington was 
first. Nor in that struggle alone does he stand 
foremost. In the name of the people of the United 
States, their President, their Senators, their Repre- 
sentatives, and their Judges do crown to-day with 
the grandest crown that veneration has ever lifted 
to the brow of Glory, him whom Virginia gave to 
America, whom America had given to the world 
and to the ages, and whom mankind with universal 
suffrage has proclaimed the foremost of the found- 
ers of empire in the first degree of greatness ; whom 
Liberty herself has anointed as the first citizen in 
the great Republic of Humanity. 

Encompassed by the inviolate seas, stands to-day 
the American Republic, which he founded — a freer 
Greater Britain — uplifted above the powers and 
principalities of the earth, even as his monument 
is uplifted over roof and dome and spire of the 
multitudinous city. 

Long live the Republic of Washington! Re- 



216 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

spected by mankind, beloved of all its sons, long 
may it be the asylum of the poor and oppressed of 
all lands and religions — long may it be the citadel 
©f that Liberty which writes beneath the eagle's 
folded wings, " We will sell to no man, we will deny 
to no man, right and justice.'' 

Long live the United States of America! Filled 
with the free, magnanimous spirit, crowned by the 
wisdom, blessed by the moderation, hovered over 
by the angel of Washington's example, may they be 
ever worthy in all things to be defended by the 
blood of the brave, who know the rights of man 
and shrink not from their assertion; may they be 
each a column, and all together, under the Con- 
stitution, a perpetual Temple of Peace, unshadowed 
by a Caesar's palace, at whose altar may freely com- 
mune all who seek the union of liberty and brother- 
hood. 

Long live our country! Oh, long through the 
undying ages may it stand far removed in fact as 
in space from the Old World's feuds and follies; 
alone in its grandeur and its glory, itself the im- 
mortal monument of him whom Providence commis- 
sioned to teach man the power of truth and to 
prove to the nations that their redeemer liveth. 



THE WHOLE MAN 217 

THE CHARACTER OF WASHINGTON 

BY HENRY CABOT LODGE 

For many years I have studied minutely the 
career of Washington, and with every step the 
greatness of the man has grown upon me; for 
analysis has failed to discover the act of his life 
which, under the conditions of the time, I could 
unhestitatingly pronounce to have been an error. 
Such has been my experience, and, although my 
deductions may be wrong, they at least have been 
carefully and slowly made. I see in Washington 
a great soldier, who fought a trying war to a suc- 
cessful end impossible without him; a great states- 
man, who did more than any other man to lay 
the foundations of a republic which has endured 
in prosperity for more than a century. I find in 
him a marvelous judgment which was never at fault, 
a penetrating vision which beheld the future of 
America when it was dim to other eyes, a great 
intellectual force, a will of iron, an unyielding grasp 
of facts, and an unequaled strength of patriotic pur- 
pose. I see in him, too, a pure and high-minded 
gentleman of dauntless courage and stainless honor, 
simple and stately of manner, kind and generous of 
heart. Such he was in truth. The historian and 
the biographer may fail to do him justice, but the 
instinct of mankind will not fail. The real hero 
needs not books to give him worshipers. George 
Washington will always receive the love and rever- 
ence of men, because they see embodied in him the 
noblest possibilities of humanity. 



IX 
ANECDOTES AND STORIES 



ANECDOTES OF WASHINGTON 

Washington's relations with children are most in- 
teresting. He always wrote of them as the " little 
ones." 

Through his life he adopted or assumed the ex- 
penses of nine of the children of his " kith and 
kin." 

Dumas says that he arrived at Providence with 
Washington at night. " The whole population had 
assembled from the suburbs; we were surrounded 
by a crowd of children carrying torches, all were 
eager to approach the person of him whom they 
called their father, and pressed so closely around 
us that they hindered us from proceeding. General 
Washington was much affected, stopped a few mo- 
ments, and, pressing my hand, said, ' We may be 
beaten by the English, it is the chance of war; 
but behold an army which they can never conquer/ " 



In journeying through New England, Washing- 
ton spent a night in a private house where all 
payment was refused. Writing to his host he said : 
" Being informed that you have given my name to 
one of your sons, and called another after Mrs. 
Washington's family, and .being, moreover, very 
much pleased with the modest and innocent looks 

221 



222 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

of your two daughters, Patty and Polly, I do for 
these reasons send each of these girls a piece of 
chintz; and to Patty, who bears the name of Mrs. 
Washington, and who waited upon us more than 
Polly did, I send five guineas with which she may 
buy herself any little ornament, or she may dispose 
of them in any manner more agreeable to herself. 
As I do not give these things with a view to have 
it talked of, or even its being known, the less there 
is said about the matter the better you will please 
me; but, that I may be sure the chintz and money 
have got safe to hand, let Patty, who I dare say 
is equal to it, write me a line informing me thereof, 
directed to the President of the United States at 
New York." 



-i 



Once the General was engaged in earnest con- 
sultation with Colonel Pickering until after night 
had fairly set in. Washington prepared to stay with 
the colonel over night, provided he had a spare 
blanket and straw. " Oh yes," said Primus, who 
was appealed to, " plenty of straw and blankets, 
plenty." 

Two humble beds were spread side by side in 
the tent and the officers laid themselves down, while 
Primus seemed to be busy with duties that required 
his attention before he himself could sleep. He 
worked, or appeared to work, until the breathing 
of the prostrate gentlemen satisfied him that they 
were sleeping, and then seating himself upon a box, 
he leaned his head upon his hands to obtain such 
repose as he could. 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 223 

In the middle of the night Washington awoke. 
He looked about and descried the negro. He gazed 
at him awhile and then spoke. 

" Primus/' said he, " Primus ! " Primus started 
up and rubbed his eyes. 

" What, General ? " said he. Washington rose up 
in his bed. " Primus," said he, " what do you mean 
by saying that you had straw and blankets enough? 
Here you have given up your blankets and straw 
to me, that I may sleep comfortably, while you are 
obliged to sit through the night." " It's nothing, 
General," said Primus ! " It's nothing ! I'm well 
enough ! Don't trouble yourself about me, General, 
but go to sleep again. No matter about me, I sleep 
very good ! " " But it is matter, it is matter," said 
Washington. " I cannot do it, Primus. If either 
is to sit up, I will. But I think there is no need 
of either sitting up. The blanket is wide enough 
for two. Come and lie down with me." 

" Oh no, General ! " said Primus, starting and 
protesting against the proposition. " No, let me sit 
here." " I say come and lie down here ! " said 
Washington. " There is room for both ; I insist 
upon it." 

He threw open the blanket as he spoke, and 
moved to one side of the straw. Primus professes 
to have been exceedingly shocked at the idea of 
lying under the same covering with the commander- 
in-chief, but his tone was so resolute and determined 
that he could not hesitate. He prepared himself 
therefore and laid himself down by Washing- 
ton; on the same straw under the same blanket, 



224 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

the General and the negro servant slept until 
morning. 



i 



An anecdote characteristic of Washington is re- 
lated by Professor McVickar, in his narrative of 
" The Life of Dr. Bard," who attended Washington 
during a severe illness in 1789. 

It was a case of anthrax (carbuncle) so malignant as 
for several days to threaten mortification. During this 
period Dr. Bard never quitted him. On one occasion being 
left alone with him, General Washington, looking steadily 
in his face, desired his candid opinion as to the probable 
termination of his disease, adding with that placid firmness 
which marked his address, "Do not flatter me with vain 
hopes, I'm not afraid to die, and therefore can bear the 
worst." Dr. Bard's answer, though it expressed hope, 
acknowledged his apprehensions. 

The President replied: "Whether to-night or twenty 
years hence, makes no difference; I know that I am in the 
hands of a good Providence." 



^ George Washington to his nephew, Bushrod 
Washington : 

Remember, that it is not the mere study of the Law, but 
to become eminent in the profession of it, which is to 
yield honor and profit. 

The first was your choice, let the second be your am- 
bition; that the company in which you will improve most, 
will be least expensive to you; and yet I am not such a 
stoic as "to suppose that you will, or think it right that 
you should always be in company with senators and 
philosophers; but of the young and the juvenile kind let 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 225 

me advise you to be choice. It is easy to make acquaint- 
ances, but very difficult to shake them off, however irk- 
some and unprofitable they are found, after we have once 
committed ourselves to them. 



/v While absent from Mount Vernon Washington 
wrote to his manager : 

Although it is last mentioned, it is foremost in my 
thoughts to desire you will be particularly attentive to my 
negroes in their sickness, and to order every overseer 
positively to be so likewise ; for I am sorry to observe that 
the generality of them view these poor creatures in 
scarcely any other light than they do a draught horse or 
an ox, neglecting them as much when they are unable to 
work instead of comforting and nursing them when they 
lie in a sick bed. 



A part of each day was always set apart for 
meditation and devotion; nor this in time of peace 
only, for we are told that one day while the Amer- 
icans were encamped at Valley Forge, the owner of 
the house occupied by the General, a Quaker, 
strolled up the creek, and when not far from his 
mill, heard a solemn voice. He walked quietly in 
the direction of it and saw Washington's horse tied 
to a sapling. In a thicket near by was the chief, 
upon his knees in prayer, his cheeks suffused with 
tears. 



During the Revolutionary War, General Wash- 
ington's army was reduced at one time to great 
straits, and the people were greatly dispirited. One 



226 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

of them who left his home with an anxious heart 
one day, as he was passing the edge of a wood near 
the camp, heard the sound of a voice. He stopped 
to listen, and looking between the trunks of the large 
trees he saw General Washington engaged in prayer. 
He passed quietly on, that he might not disturb 
him; and on returning home, told his family, 
" America will prevail," and then related what he 
had heard and seen. 



THE ABUSE OF WASHINGTON 

BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON 

On the last day in office Washington wrote to 
Knox comparing himself to " the weary traveler 
who sees a resting-place, and is bending his body to 
lean thereon. To be suffered to do this in peace," 
he added, " is too much to be endured by some." 
Accordingly on that very day a Philadelphia news- 
paper dismissed him with a final tirade, worth re- 
membering by all who think that political virulence 
is on the increase : 

"Lordj now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, 
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation" was the exclama- 
tion of a man who saw a flood of blessedness breaking in 
upon mankind. If ever there was a time that allowed 
this exclamation to be repeated, that time is the present. 
The man who is the source of all our country's misery 
is this day reduced to the rank of his fellow-citizens, and 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES Z2J 

has no longer the power to multiply the woes of these 
United States. Now more than ever is the time to re- 
joice. Every heart which feels for the liberty, and the 
happiness of the people must now beat with rapture 
at the thought that this day the name of Washington 
ceases to give currency to injustice and to legalize cor- 
ruption. . . . When we look back upon the eight years 
of Washington's administration, it strikes us with aston- 
ishment that one man could thus poison the principles 
of republicanism among our enlightened people, and carry 
his designs against the public liberty so far as to en- 
danger its very existence. Yet such is the fact, and 
if this is apparent to all, this day they should form a 
jubilee in the United States. 



PROVIDENTIAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF 
WASHINGTON 

BY IRVING ALLEN 

From The Independent 

At this season of the anniversary of Washing- 
ton's birth, it seems especially appropriate to recall 
certain singular circumstances in the life of the great- 
est of Americans — events remarkable in themselves 
in whatever light they may be viewed; whether, in 
accordance with the tenets of modern Spiritism 
and, to a certain extent, in harmony with the 
doctrines of Swedenborg and his followers in human 
affairs of departed spirits ; or if, on the other hand, 
we adopt the simple teachings of the Sacred Scrip- 



228 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

tures, and acknowledge the truth with men and their 
affairs. 

Authentic history records no less than six mar- 
velous instances in which the life of Washington 
was saved under circumstances seemingly little less 
than miraculous. The first of these wonderful 
escapes from impending peril occurred during the 
period of Washington's sole recorded absence from 
the American continent — when he accompanied his 
brother Lawrence, then fatally ill with consumption, 
to the Barbadoes. 

Smallpox 

They sailed in September of 1751, George being 
then in the twentieth year of his age. Before the 
brothers had been a fortnight in the island the 
younger, the future hero of the Revolution, was at- 
tacked with smallpox in its " natural " and virulent 
form. This disease was not then the fangless mon- 
ster with which we are familiar, but was terrific in 
its assaults and almost invariably fatal; yet Wash- 
ington recovered in something less than three weeks, 
and retained through his life but slight marks of the 
malady. 

One of General Washington's biographers well 
says, in reference to this incident, in the life of the 
first President, that, " it may well be doubted 
whether in any of his battles he was in equal danger. 
If the disease entered an army, it was a foe more 
to be dreaded than embattled hosts. . . . But it 
belongs to that class of diseases of which, by a mys- 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 229 

terious law of our nature, our frames are, generally 
speaking, susceptible but once. . . . Thus it came 
to pass, that, in the morning of his days, Washing- 
ton became (humanly speaking) safe from all future 
danger from this formidable disease." 

The reader of American history will remember 
that the smallpox appeared among the British troops 
in Boston in the fall of 1775; that it ravaged our 
army in Canada in the following spring ; that it pre- 
vailed the same year at Ticonderoga, and in 1777 at 
Morristown. Regarding this last occasion of its ap- 
pearance, Washington said, in a letter to Governor 
Henry, of Virginia, where vaccination was not per- 
mitted : 

You will pardon my observation on smallpox because I 
know it is more destructive to the army than the enemies' 
sword and because I shudder whenever I reflect upon the 
difficulties of keeping it out. 

This was the tremendous peril from which Wash- 
ington was comparatively safe after his twentieth 
year. " If," says a very eminent writer, " to refer 
this to an overruling Providence be a superstition, 
I desire to be accounted superstitious." 



The Journey to Venango, 17 S3 

The next imminent danger to which Washington 
was exposed, and from which his escape was well- 
nigh miraculous, was on the occasion of his historic 
expedition to the headquarters of the French Gov- 



2 3 o WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

ernor at Venango, in 1753. The journey itself, in 
the winter season, of five or six hundred miles 
through an unsettled country, most of it constantly 
traveled by natives at enmity with the English, was 
one continued story of danger and escape. It was 
but two years after this trip of Washington's to 
Venango that English soldiers — surrendered pris- 
oners of war — were tortured to death by the savage 
natives within sight of Fort Duquesne. On his re- 
turn from the fulfillment of his mission, Washington 
traversed the forest with a single companion and an 
Indian guide. Just at nightfall, on one of the days 
of their perilous journey, their savage attendant 
suddenly turned, and at a distance of but fifteen 
paces fired on Washington, happily without evil 
result. 

After this alarming experience the two com- 
panions pursued their way alone, footsore and 
weary, through the woods, with the sure knowledge 
that the savages were on their trail. Reaching the 
Alleghany River on a night of December, they found 
it encumbered with drifting ice, and only to be 
crossed by means of a raft which, with only " one 
poor hatchet," cost them an entire day's labor to 
construct. When crossing the river, Washington, 
while using the setting pole, was thrown violently 
into the water at a depth of ten feet, and saved his 
life by grasping a log. They spent the night, in 
their frozen clothing, on a little island on which, 
had they been forced to stay till sunrise, they 
would, beyond question, have fallen into the hands 
of the Indians ; but the intense cold which froze the 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 231 

feet of Washington's companion, also sealed the 
river and enabled them to escape on the ice. 



Another Mission 

y 

The year following the mission to Venango 
(1754) Colonel Washington was sent in command 
of a small force in the same direction; but by rea- 
son of the greatly superior strength of the enemy, 
the expedition resulted in a calamitous retreat. By 
a singular coincidence, the compulsory evacuation 
of the English stronghold — " Fort Necessity," as it 
was called — occurred on the Fourth of July, 1754 — 
a date afterward made forever glorious in great 
measure by the inestimable services of the young 
commander of this earlier and ill-fated military ex- 
pedition. But such were the ability, energy, and 
power evinced by its youthful commander, that the 
disaster resulted in his own greatly enhanced reputa- 
tion as a born leader of men. 



Braddock and Washington 

In the following year (1755) a gigantic effort was 
made by England to recover lost ground, and to 
repair the military misadventures of 1754. The 
history of Braddock's disastrous expedition is 
familiar to every schoolboy in the land. At this 
period, Colonel Washington had retired from the 
army in disgust at the unjust regulations which gave 
undue preference to officers holding commissions 



232 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

from the Crown over abler men — some of them their 
seniors of the same rank — in the service of the 
provinces. He was, however, at length induced — in 
great measure from motives of the purest patriot- 
ism, and partly, no doubt, from his strong leaning 
toward a military career — to accept a position on the 
staff of the commanding General, Braddock, a sol- 
dier of courage and large experience, but, as events 
afterward proved, a haughty, self-willed, and 
passionate man. 

During the passage of Braddock's forces 
through the Alleghany Mountains, Washington was 
attacked by so violent and alarming a sickness that 
its result was for a time extremely uncertain; on 
his partial recovery the General caused him to move 
with the heavy artillery and baggage. In this posi- 
tion Washington remained two weeks, returning 
to the General's headquarters on the eighth of July, 
the day preceding the fatal battle of the Monon- 
gahela. 

On the morning of this day — forever and sadly 
memorable in American annals — Washington 
mounted his horse, weak and worn by sickness, but 
strong in hope and courage. These are his own 
words uttered in other and better days : 

The most beautiful spectacle I had ever beheld was the 
display of the British troops on that eventful morning. 
. . . The sun gleamed from their burnished arms, the 
river flowed tranquilly on their right, and the deep forest 
overshadowed them with solemn grandeur on the left. 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 233 



Braddock's Defeat 

It is needless to repeat here the tale of that day 
of defeat and slaughter. Historians have recorded 
its events, and poets have sung its story. Through- 
out the action Washington was in the thickest of the 
fight. " I expected every moment to see him fall," 
wrote Dr. Craik, his physician and friend. It was 
during this disastrous battle that Washington 
escaped perhaps the most imminent peril of his life. 
In company with Dr. Craik, in the year 1770, he 
descended the Ohio River on a journey of observa- 
tion to the Great Kanawha, and it was there that 
an incident occurred, which is thus described by 
Irving : 

Here Washington was visited by an old sachem, who 
approached him with great reverence and addressed him 
through Nicholson, the interpreter. He had come, he said, 
a great distance to see him. On further discourse, the 
sachem made known that he was one of the warriors in 
the service of the French, who lay in ambush on the banks 
of the Monongahela, and wrought such havoc to Brad- 
dock's army. He declared that he and his young men had 
singled out Washington, as he made himself conspicuous 
riding about the field of battle with the General's orders, 
and fired at him repeatedly, but without success ; whence 
they concluded that he was under the protection of the 
Great Spirit, that he had a charmed life, and could not 
be slain in battle. 

Washington himself wrote thus to his brother : ^ 

By all the powerful dispensations of Providence, I have 
been protected beyond all human probability and expecta- 



234 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

tion; for I had four bullets through my coat and two 
horses shot under me; yet I escaped unhurt, although 
death was leveling my companions on every side. 

His marvelous preservation was the subject of 
general remark; Mr. Davies, later President of 
Princeton College, used these words in an address a 
few weeks after the Braddock defeat: 

That heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I can- 
not but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so 
signal a manner for some important service to his country. 

Escape from a Marriage 

The next apparently providential intervention in 
the affairs of the hero of the Revolution is con- 
nected with very different scenes from those of bat- 
tle and carnage ; it may, perhaps, be fairly described 
as a narrow escape from a marriage which, while it 
might have proved a happy alliance in so far as 
Washington himself was concerned, would almost 
certainly have resulted in the loss of his inestimable 
services to his country. 

Washington's attachment io Mary Philipse is a 
fact beyond reasonable question; his offer of mar- 
riage to that young lady is somewhat traditional. It 
is certain, however, that during his necessary ab- 
sence on military duty, Captain Morris, his associate 
aide-de-camp in the Monongahela engagement, be- 
came a successful suitor for the hand of Miss 
Philipse. 

What is far less generally known is the fact that, 
had Washington been successful in his early matri- 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 235 

monial aspirations, he would certainly have re- 
mained a loyal adherent of the royal cause, and 
would thus have been lost to his native land. Evi- 
dences of the justice of this theory are by no means 
lacking. The relatives and friends of the lady were 
nearly all devoted to the cause of England; Wash- 
ington was the associate of many of them; and 
Captain Morris, his successful rival, remained in 
the British service during his life. There can be, I 
think, little doubt that, in the event of his marriage 
with Miss Philipse, Washington, like Captain Mor- 
ris, would have returned to England and been for- 
ever lost to America. Mrs. Morris survived her il- 
lustrious admirer twenty-five years, dying about the 
year 1825. 

Washington Unrewarded 

A striking historical fact, — as strange as it is 
authentic — is the treatment of Washington by the 
English Government after the death of Braddock. 
Had General Braddock survived his terrible mis- 
fortune the result might well have been very differ- 
ent; for it is matter of history that the youthful of- 
ficer had the undivided confidence of his com- 
mander. But by the British Ministry, and even by 
the King himself, the young hero of the fatal battle 
was treated with scarcely disguised contempt and 
neglect. 

In a letter to the British War Minister, Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie speaks of Colonel Washington as a 
man of great merit and resolution, adding: 



236 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

I am confident, that, if General Braddock had lived, he 
would have recommended him to the royal favor, which I 
beg your interest in recommending. 



The sole results were a half-rebuke from the 
King, and a malicious fling from the lips of Horace 
Walpole. For more than three years Washington 
labored incessantly, by personal effort and by means 
of influential intercessors, to secure a royal com- 
mission. 

In view of what the world knows now of Wash- 
ington's well-nigh matchless ability as a soldier, and 
remembering especially the reputation he had al- 
ready acquired — amazing in so youthful an officer 
— his persistent neglect by the military authorities 
" at home," and particularly the stubborn and dolt- 
ish determination on the part of the King to ignore 
the man and his almost unexampled services, sug- 
gests the theory that the heart of King George, of 
England, was as truly and providentially " hard- 
ened " as was that of his royal prototype, Pharaoh, 
of ancient times. For, finding that all his efforts 
were ineffectual and believing that the chief object 
of the war was attained by the capture of Fort 
Duquesne, and the final defeat of the French on 
the Ohio, the young hero retired after five years of 
arduous and ill-requited service, in the words of a 
great writer of our own land and time : 

The youthful idol of his countrymen, but without so 
much as a civil word from the fountain of honor. And so, 
when after seventeen years of private life he next ap- 
peared in arms, it was as the " Commander-in-Chief of the 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 237 

Army of the United Colonies, and of all the forces now 
raised, or to be raised by them." 

The same writer elsewhere remarks : 

Such was the policy by which the Horse Guards occa- 
sionally saved a Major's commission for a fourth son of a 
Duke, by which the Crown lost a continent ; and the peo- 
ple of the United States gained a place in the family of 
nations. The voice of history cries aloud to powerful 
Governments, in the administration of their colonies: 
" Discite justitiam moniti." 



A Furious Conflict 

The last of the six marvelous escapes of our hero 
from impending and fatal disaster occurred during 
the historic night march of Washington and the 
American Army on Princeton, where, on the third 
of January, 1776, he compassed the entire destruc- 
tion of one regiment of the enemy, and captured or 
forced to ignoble retreat two others. This battle 
was the subject of one of Colonel Trumbull's most 
famous paintings; and it was during this engage- 
ment — as Washington himself told the illustrious 
artist — that he was in greater peril than even at the 
time of Braddock's defeat. 

In the height of the battle the two armies were 
for a brief season in furious conflict, and Washing- 
ton between them within range of both fires. Wash- 
ington Irving writes: 

His Aide, Colonel Fitzgerald, losing sight of him in the 
heat of the fight when enveloped in smoke and dust, 



238 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

dropped the bridle on the neck of his horse and drew 
his hat over his eyes, giving him up for lost. When he 
saw him, however, emerging from the cloud, waving his 
hat, and beheld the enemy giving way, he spurred up to 
his side : " Thank God," cried he, " your Excellency is 
safe!" "Away, my dear Colonel, and bring up the 
troops," was Washington's reply ; " the day is our own." 

Trumbull's immortal picture shows us the hero 
of that decisive battle standing on the memorable 
day of Princeton by the side of his white war-horse. 
Says an eloquent writer: 

Well might he exult in the event of the day, for it was 
the last of a series of bold and skilful manoeuvres and suc- 
cessful actions, by which, in three weeks, he had rescued 
Philadelphia, driven the enemy from the banks of the 
Delaware, recovered the State of New Jersey, and, at the 
close of a disastrous campaign, restored hope and con- 
fidence to the country. 

Such are the six memorable events which it well 
becomes the American people to recall with devout 
gratitude and awe, realizing anew the Providence 
that watches alike over human beings and the af- 
fairs of nations, and recognizing the solemn truth 
that ever, as, signally, in those times that tried the 
souls of men, 

"God fulfills Himself in many ways." 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 239 

CHARACTERISTICS OF WASHINGTON 

Von Braam and Washington 

Washington began to be a soldier in his boyhood. 
During the British campaign against the West In- 
dies, Lawrence Washington, George's half-brother, 
made the acquaintance of a Dutchman, named Jacob 
von Braam, who afterwards came to Virginia. 
These young men were great heroes to the ten-year- 
old George. Von Braam took the lad in hand and 
began his military education. He drilled him in 
the manual of arms and sword exercise, and taught 
him fortification and engineering. All the theory of 
war which Washington knew was gained from 
von Braam ; the practice he was soon to gain in the 
field. 

Washington's Athletic Skill 

Many stories are told which show Washington's 
athletic skill. During a surveying expedition he 
first visited the Natural Bridge, in Virginia. Stand- 
ing almost directly under it, he tossed a stone on 
top, a distance of about two hundred feet. He 
scaled the rocks and carved his name far above all 
others. He was said to be the only man who could 
throw a stone across the Potomac River. Wash- 
ington was never more at home than when in the 
saddle. " The general is a very excellent and bold 
horseman," wrote a contemporary, " leaping the 
highest fences and going extremely quick, without 



240 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

standing on his stirrups, bearing on his bridle, or 
letting his horse run wild." 

After his first battle Washington wrote to his 
brother, " I heard the bullets whistle about me, and, 
believe me, there is something charming in the 
sound." But years after, when he had learned all 
there was to know of the horrors of war, he said, 
sadly, " I said that when I was young." 

Punctuality 

Punctuality was one of Washington's strong 
points. When company was invited to dinner, he 
made an allowance of only five minutes for varia- 
tion in watches. If the guests came late he would 
say : " We are too punctual for you. I have a cook 
who does not ask if the company has come, but if 
the hour has come." 

In a letter to a friend he wrote : " I begin my 
diurnal course with the sun; if my hirelings are 
not in their places by that time I send them mes- 
sages of sorrow for their indisposition." 

A letter to his sister, Betty, shows his businesslike 
manner : " If your son Howell is with you and not 
usefully employed in your own affairs, and should 
incline to spend a few months with me in my of- 
fice as a writer (if he is fit for it), I will allow him 
at the rate of 300 a year, provided he is diligent in 
discharging the duties of it from breakfast till din- 
nertime. ... I am particular in declaring before- 
hand what I require, so that there may be no dis- 
appointment or false expectations on either side." 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 241 

His Stepchildren 

Washington's relations with his stepchildren show 
a very pleasant side of his character. We find him 
ordering from London such articles as " 10 shillings' 
worth of toys, 6 little books for children beginning 
to read, 1 fashionable-dressed baby to cost 10 shil- 
lings, and a box of gingerbread toys and sugar 
images, or comfits." Later he sent for " 1 very 
good spinet," for Patsey, as Martha Parke Custis 
was called. 

His niece, Hariot, who lived in the Washington 
home from 1785 to 1796, was a great trial to him. 
" She has," he wrote, " no disposition to be careful 
of her clothes, which she dabs about in every hole 
and corner, and her best things always in use, so 
that she costs me enough." 

One of the characteristics of a truly great man 
is his readiness to ask pardon. Once when Nelly 
Custis, Mrs. Washington's granddaughter, was 
severely reprimanded for walking alone by moon- 
light in the grounds of Mount Vernon, Washington 
tried to intercede for the girl. 

" Perhaps she was not alone ; I would say no 
more," he said. 

" Sir," said Nelly Custis, " you have brought me 
up to speak the truth, and when I told grandmamma 
that I was alone, I hoped that you would believe 
me." 

" My child," said Washington, bowing in his 
courtly fashion, " I beg your pardon." 



242 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

His Temper 

Stuart, the portrait painter, once said to Gen- 
eral Lee that Washington had a tremendous temper, 
but that he had it under wonderful control. While 
dining with the Washingtons, General Lee repeated 
the first part of Stuart's remark. Mrs. Washing- 
ton flushed and said that Mr. Stuart took a great 
deal upon himself. Then General Lee said that 
Mr. Stuart had added that the President had his 
temper under wonderful control. Washington 
seemed to be thinking for a moment, then he smiled 
and said, " Mr. Stuart is right." 



His Smile 

The popular idea that Washington never laughed 
is well-nigh exploded. Nelly Custis said, " I have 
sometimes made him laugh most heartily from sym- 
pathy with my joyous and extravagant spirits." 

When the news came from Dr. Franklin in 
France that help was promised from that country, 
General Washington broke into a laugh, waved his 
cocked hat, and said to his officers, " The day is 
ours ! " Another story is to the effect that while 
present at the baptism of a child of a Mr. Wood, he 
was so surprised to hear the name given as George 
Washington that he smiled. Senator Maclay tells 
of his smiling at a state dinner, and even toying 
with his fork. Various sources testify that a 
smile lent an unusual beauty to his face. 

At one time, as Washington entered a shop in 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 243 

New York, a Scotch nursemaid followed him, car- 
rying her infant charge. " Please, sir, here's a 
bairn was named after you." 

" What is his name ? " asked the President. 

" Washington Irving, sir." 

Washington put his hand upon the child's head 
and gave him his blessing, little thinking that " the 
bairn " would write, as a labor of love, a life of 
Washington. 

While at his Newburgh headquarters the General 
was approached by Aaron Burr, who stealthily crept 
up as he was writing, and looked over his shoulder. 
Although Washington did not hear the footfall, he 
saw the shadow in the mirror. He looked up, and 
said only, " Mr. Burr ! " But the tone was enough 
to make Burr quail and beat a hasty retreat. 

A man who, well for himself, is nameless, made a 
wager with some friends that he could approach 
Washington familiarly. The President was walk- 
ing up Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia, when the 
would-be wag, in full view of his companions, 
slapped him on the back and said, " Well, old fel- 
low, how are you this morning ? " Washington 
looked at him, and in a freezing tone asked, " Sir, 
what have I ever said or done which induces you 
to treat me in this manner ? " 



Thoughtfulness 

After Washington's retirement from the Presi- 
dency, Elkanah Watson was a guest at Mount Ver- 
non. He had a serious cold, and after he retired he 



244 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

coughed severely. Suddenly the curtains of his bed 
were drawn aside, and there stood Washington with 
a huge bowl of steaming herb tea. " Drink this," 
he said, " it will be good for that cough." 

Washington possessed in a peculiar degree the 
great gift of remembering faces. Once, while visit- 
ing in Newburyport, he saw at work in the grounds 
of his host an old servant whom he had not seen 
since the French and Indian war, thirty years before. 
He knew the man at once, and stopped and spoke 
kindly to him. 

Modesty 

Any collection of anecdotes about Washington is 
sure to refer to his extreme modesty. Upon one oc- 
casion, when the speaker of the Assembly returned 
thanks in glowing terms to Colonel Washington for 
his services, he rose to express his acknowledgments, 
but he was so embarrassed that he could not artic- 
ulate a word. " Sit down, Mr. Washington," said 
the speaker, " your modesty equals your valor, and 
that surpasses the power of any language which I 
possess." 

When Adams suggested that Congress should ap- 
point a general, and hinted plainly at Washington, 
who happened to sit near the door, the latter rose, 
" and, with his usual modesty, darted into the library 
room." 

Washington's favorite quotation was Addison's 
" 'Tis not in mortals to command success," but he 
frequently quoted Shakespeare. 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 245 

Taste for Literature 

His taste for literature is indicated by the list of 
books which he ordered for his library at the close 
of the war: " Life of Charles the Twelfth," "Life 
of Louis the Fifteenth," " Life and Reign of Peter 
the Great," Robertson's " History of America," 
" Voltaire's Letters," Vertol's " Revolution of 
Rome," " Revolution of Portugal," Goldsmith's 
" Natural History," " Campaigns of Marshal 
Turenne," Chambaud's " French and English Dic- 
tionary," Locke " On the Human Understanding," 
and Robertson's "Charles the Fifth." "Light 
reading," he wrote to his step-grandson, " (by this 
I mean books of little importance) may amuse for 
the moment, but leaves nothing behind." 



•f 



His Dress 



Although always very particular about his dress, 
Washington was no dandy, as some have supposed. 
" Do not," he wrote to his nephew in 1783, " con- 
ceive that fine clothes make fine men any more than 
fine feathers make fine birds. A plain, genteel dress 
is more admired and obtains more credit than lace 
or embroidery in the eyes of the judicious and 
sensible." 

Sullivan thus describes Washington at a levee: 
" He was dressed in black velvet, his hair full dress, 
powdered, and gathered behind in a large silk bag, 
yellow gloves on his hands; holding a cocked hat, 
with a cockade in it, and the edges adorned with a 



246 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

black feather about an inch deep. He wore knee 
and shoe buckles, and a long sword. . . . The 
scabbard was of white polished leather." 

After Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, Wash- 
ington said to his army : " My brave fellows, let no 
sensation of satisfaction for the triumphs you have 
gained induce you to insult your fallen enemy. Let 
no shouting, no clamorous huzzaing increase their 
mortification. It is sufficient for us that we wit- 
ness their humiliation. Posterity will huzza for 
us." 

While there are many stories which show Wash- 
ington's straightforwardness, here is one which 
shows much diplomacy. He was asked by Volney, 
a Frenchman and a revolutionist, for a letter of 
recommendation to the American people. This re- 
quest put him in an awkward position, for there 
were good reasons why he could not give it, and 
other good reasons why he did not wish to refuse. 
Taking a sheet of paper, he wrote : 

C. Volney needs no recommendation from 

Geo. Washington. 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 247 
GREAT GEORGE WASHINGTON 1 

BY KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN AND NORA A. SMITH 

All this time while George Washington had been 
growing up, — first a little boy, then a larger boy, 
and then a young surveyor, — all this time the French 
and English and Indians were unhappy and uncom- 
fortable in the country north of Virginia. The 
French wanted all the land, so did the English, and 
the Indians saw that there would be no room for 
them, whichever had it, so they all began to trouble 
each other, and to quarrel and fight. 

These troubles grew so bad at last that the 
Virginians began to be afraid of the French and 
Indians, and thought they must have some soldiers 
of their own ready to fight. 

George Washington was only nineteen then, but 
everybody knew he was wise and brave, so they 
chose him to teach the soldiers near his home how 
to march and to fight. 

Then the king and the people of England grew 
very uneasy at all this quarreling, and they sent 
over soldiers and cannon and powder, and com- 
menced to get ready to fight in earnest. Washing- 
ton was made a major, and he had to go a thousand 
miles, in the middle of winter, into the Indian and 
French country, to see the chiefs and the soldiers, 
and find out about the troubles. 

1 From "The Story Hour" by Kate Douglas Wiggin 
and Nora A. Smith. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., publishers. 



248 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

When he came back again, all the people were so 
pleased with his courage and with the wise way in 
which he had behaved, that they made him lieu- 
tenant-colonel. 

Then began a long war between the French and 
the English, which lasted seven years. Washington 
fought through all of it, and was made a colonel, 
and by and by commander of all the soldiers in 
Virginia. He built forts and roads, he gained and 
lost battles, he fought the Indians and the French; 
and by all this trouble and hard work he learned to 
be a great soldier. 

In many of the battles of this war, Washington 
and the Virginians did not wear a uniform, like 
the English soldiers, but a buckskin shirt and fringed 
leggings, like the Indians. 

From beginning to end of some of the battles, 
Washington rode about among the men, telling them 
where to go and how to fight; the bullets were 
whistling around him all the time, but he said he 
liked the music. 

By and by the war was over; the French were 
driven back to their own part of the country, and 
Washington went home to Mount Vernon to rest, 
and took with him his wife, lovely Martha Washing- 
ton, whom he had met and married while he was 
fighting the French and Indians. 

While he was at Mount Vernon he saw all his 
horses again, — " Valiant " and " Magnolia " and 
" Chinkling " and " Ajax," — and had grand gallops 
over the country. 

He had some fine dogs, too, to run by his side, 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 249 

and help him hunt the bushy-tailed foxes. " Vul- 
can " and " Ringwood " and " Music " and " Sweet- 
lips " were the names of some of them. You may- 
be sure the dogs were glad when they had their 
master home again. 

But Washington did not have long to rest, for 
another war was coming, the great war of the 
Revolution. 

Little children cannot understand all the reasons 
for this war, but I can tell you some of them. 

You remember in the story of Thanksgiving I 
told you about the Pilgrim fathers, who came from 
England to this country because their king would 
not let them pray to God as they liked. That 
king was dead now, and there was another in his 
place, a king with the name of George, like our 
Washington. 

Now our great-grandfathers had always loved 
England and Englishmen, because many of their 
friends were still living there, and because it was 
their old home. 

The king gave them governors to help take care 
of their people, and soldiers to fight for them, and 
they sent to England for many things to wear and 
to eat. 

But just before this Revolutionary War, the king 
and the great men who helped him began to say 
that things should be done in this country that our 
people did not think right at all. The king said 
they must buy expensive stamps to put on all their 
newspapers and almanacs and lawyers papers, and 
that they must pay very high taxes on their tea and 



250 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

paper and glass, and he sent soldiers to see that this 
was done. 

This made our great-grandfathers very angry. 
They refused to pay the taxes, they would not buy 
anything from England any more, and some men 
even went on board the ships, as they came into 
Boston Harbor, and threw the tea over into the 
water. 

So fifty-one men were chosen from all over the 
country, and they met at Philadelphia, to see what 
could be done. Washington was sent from Vir- 
ginia. And after they had talked very solemnly, 
they all thought there would be great trouble soon, 
and Washington went home to drill the soldiers. 

Then the war began with the battle of Lexington, 
in New England, and soon Washington was made 
commander-in-chief of the armies. 

He rode the whole distance from Philadelphia to 
Boston on horseback, with a troop of officers; and 
all the people on the way came to see him, bringing 
bands of music and cheering him as he went by. He 
rode into camp in the morning. The soldiers were 
drawn up in the road, and men and women and chil- 
dren who had come to look at Washington were 
crowded all about. They saw a tall, splendid, hand- 
some man in a blue coat with buff facings, and 
epaulets on his shoulders. As he took off his hat, 
drew his shining sword, and raised it in sight of all 
the people, the cannon began to thunder, and all 
the people hurrahed and tossed their hats in the 
air. 

Of course, he looked very splendid, and they all 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 251 

knew how brave he was, and thought he would soon 
put an end to the war. 

But it did not happen as they expected, for this 
was only the beginning, and the war lasted seven 
long years. 

Fighting is always hard, even if you have plenty 
of soldiers and plenty for them to eat; but Wash- 
ington had very few soldiers, and very little powder 
for the guns, and little food for the men to 
eat. 

The soldiers were not in uniform, as ours are 
to-day ; but each was dressed just as he happened to 
come from his shop or his farm. 

Washington ordered hunting shirts for them, such 
as he wore when he went to fight the Indians, for he 
knew they would look more like soldiers if all were 
dressed alike. 

Of course many people thought that our men 
would be beaten, as the war went on; but Wash- 
ington never thought so, for he was sure our side 
was right. 

I hardly know what he would have done, at last, 
if the French people had not promised to come 
over and help us, and to send us money and men 
and ships. All the people in the army thanked 
God when they heard it, and fired their guns for 
joy. 

A brave young man named Lafayette came with 
the French soldiers, and he grew to be Washing- 
ton's great friend, and fought for us all through the 
Revolution. 

Many battles were fought in this war, and Wash.- 



252 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

ington lost some of them, and a great many of his 
men were killed. 

You could hardly understand how much trouble 
he had. In the winter, when the snow was deep 
on the ground, he had no houses or huts for his men 
to sleep in; his soldiers were ragged and cold by 
day, and had not blankets enough to keep them 
warm by night; their shoes were old and worn, 
and they had to wrap cloths around their feet to 
keep them from freezing. 

When they marched to the Delaware River, one 
cold Christmas night, a soldier who was sent after 
them, with a message for Washington, traced them 
by their footprints on the snow, all reddened with 
the blood from their poor cut feet. 

They must have been very brave and patient to 
have fought at all, when they were so cold and 
ragged and hungry. 

Washington suffered a great deal in seeing his 
soldiers so wretched, and I am sure that with all his 
strength and courage, he would sometimes have 
given up hope, if he had not talked and prayed to 
God a great deal, and asked Him to help him. 

In one of the hardest times of the whole war, 
Washington was staying at a farmer's house. One 
morning he rode out very early to visit the soldiers. 
The farmer went into the fields soon after, and as 
he was passing a brook where a great many bushes 
were growing, he heard a deep voice from the 
thicket. He looked through the leaves, and saw 
Washington on his knees, on the ground, praying 
to God for his soldiers. He had fastened his horse 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 253 

to a tree, and come away by himself to ask God 
to help them. 

At last the war came to an end ; the English were 
beaten, and our armies sent up praise and thanks 
to God. 

Then the soldiers went quietly back to their 
homes, and Washington bade all his officers good-by, 
and thanked them for their help and their courage. 

The little room in New York where he said fare- 
well is kept to show to visitors now, and you can 
see it some day yourselves. 

Then Washington went home to Mount Vernon 
to rest; but before he had been there long, the 
people found out that they must have someone to 
help take care of them, as they had nothing to do 
with the king of England any more; and they 
asked Washington to come and be the first President 
of the United States. 

So he did as they wished, and was as wise and 
good, and as careful and fine a President as he had 
been surveyor, soldier, and general. 

You know we always call Washington the Father 
of his Country, because he did so much for us, and 
helped to make the United States so great. 

After he died, there were parks and mountains 
and villages and towns and cities named for him 
all over the land, because people loved him so, and 
prized so highly what he had done for them. 

In the city of Washington there is a building 
where you can see many of the things that belonged 
to the first President, when he was alive. There is 
his soldier's coat, his sword, and in an old camp 



254 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

chest are the plates and knives and forks that he 
used in the Revolution. 

There is a tall, splendid monument of shining 
gray stone in that city, that towers far, far, above 
all the highest roofs and spires. It was built in 
memory of George Washington by the people of 
the United States, to show that they loved and 
would always remember the Father of his Country. 



HEADQUARTERS IN 1776 1 

BY PAUL LEICESTER FORD 

On September 15, a group of horsemen, occupy- 
ing a slight eminence of ground on the island of 
Manhattan, were .gazing eastward. Below and 
nearer the water were spread lines of soldiers behind 
intrenchments, while from three men-of-war lying 
in the river came a heavy cannonade that swept the 
shore line and spread over the water a pall of smoke 
which, as it drifted to leeward, obscured the Long 
Island shore from view. 

" 'Tis evidently a feint, your Excellency," pres- 
ently asserted one of the observers, " to cover a 
genuine attack elsewhere — most likely above the 
Haarlem." 

The person addressed — a man with an anxious, 
care-worn face that made him look fifty at least — 
lowered his glass, but did not reply for some mo- 

J From "Janice Meredith." Dodd, Mead & Co. 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 255 

ments. " You may be right, sir," he remarked, 
" though to me it has the air of an intended at- 
tack. What think you, Reed ? " 

" I agree with Mifflin. The attack will be higher 
up. Hah ! Look there ! " 

A rift had come in the smoke, and a column of 
boats, moving with well-timed oars, could for a mo- 
ment be seen as it came forward. 

" They intend a landing at Kip's Bay, as I sur- 
mised," exclaimed the general. " Gentlemen, we 
shall be needed below." He turned to Reed and 
gave him an order concerning reinforcements, then 
wheeled, and, followed by the rest, trotted over the 
plowed field. Once on the highway, he spurred his 
horse, putting him to a sharp canter. 

" What troops hold the works on the bay, 
Mifflin ? " asked one of the riders. 

" Fellows' and Parsons' brigades, Brereton." 

"If they are as good at fighting as at thieving, 
they'll distinguish themselves." 

" Ay," laughed Mifflin. " If the red coats were 
but chickens or cattle, the New England militia 
would have had them all captured ere now." 

" They'll be heard from to-day," said a third of- 
ficer. " They've earthworks to git behind, and 
they'll give the British anuther Bunker Hill." 

" Then you ought to be quick, General Putnam," 
said Brereton, " for that's the fighting you like." 

The road lay in the hollow of the land, and not 
till the party reached a slight rise were they able 
once more to get a glimpse of the shores of the 
bay. Then it was to find the flotilla well in toward 



256 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

its intended landing-place, and the American troops 
retreating in great disorder from their breast- 
works. 

Exclamations of surprise and dismay sprang from 
the lips of the riders, and their leader, turning his 
horse, jumped the fence and galloped across the 
fields to intercept the fugitives. Five minutes 
brought them up to the runaways, who, out of 
breath with the sharpness of their race, had come 
to a halt, and were being formed by their officers 
into a little less disorder. 

" General Fellows, what was the reason for this 
shameful retreat?" demanded the general, when 
within speaking distance. 

" The men were seized with a panic on the ap- 
proach of the boats, your Excellency, and could not 
be held in the lines." 

Washington faced the regiments, his face blazing 
with scorn. " You ran before a shot had been 
fired! Before you lost a man, you deserted works 
that have taken weeks to build, and which could be 
held against any such force." He paused for a mo- 
ment, and then, drawing his sword, called with 
spirit: "Who's for recovering them?" 

A faint cheer passed down the lines; but almost 
as it sounded, the red coats of fifty or sixty light in- 
fantry came into view on the road, a skirmishing 
party thrown forward from the landing to recon- 
noiter. Had they been Howe's whole army, how- 
ever, they could not have proved more effective, for 
instantly the two brigades broke and dissolved once 
more into squads of flying men. 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 257 

At such cowardice, Washington lost all control of 
himself, and, dashing in among the fugitives, he 
passionately struck right and left with the flat of 
his sword, thundering curses at them; while Put- 
nam and Mifflin, as well as the aides, followed his 
example. It was hopeless, however, to stay the rush ; 
the men took the blows and the curses unheeding, 
while throwing away their guns and scattering in 
every direction. 

Made frantic by such conduct, Washington 
wheeled his horse. " Charge ! " he cried, and rode 
toward the enemy, waving his sword. 

If the commander-in-chief had hoped to put some 
of his own courage into the troops by his example, 
he failed. Not a man of the runaways ceased flee- 
ing. None the less, as if regardless of conse- 
quences in his desperation, Washington rode on, 
until one of the aides dashed his spurs into his 
horse and came up beside his general at a mad 
gallop. 

" Your Excellency ! " he cried, " 'tis but hopeless, 

and will but end in " Then, as his superior did 

not heed him, he seized the left rein of his horse's 
bridle, and, pulling on it, swung him about in a 
large circle, letting go his hold only when they were 
riding away from the enemy. 

Washington offered no resistance, and rode the 
hundred yards to where the rest of his staff were 
standing, with bowed head. Nothing was said as 
he rejoined the group, and Blueskin, disappointed 
in the charge for which he had shown as much 
eagerness as his rider, let his mind recur to thoughts 



258 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

of oats ; finding no control in the hand that held his 
bridle, he set out at an easy trot toward head- 
quarters. 

They had not ridden many yards ere Washington 
lifted his head, the expression of hopelessness, 
which had taken the place of that of animation, in 
turn succeeded by one of stern repose. He issued 
three orders to as many of the riders, showing that 
his mind had not been dwelling idly on the disaster, 
slipped his sword into its scabbard, and gathered 
up his reins again. 

" There ! " thought Blueskin, as a new direction 
was indicated by his bit, " I'm going to have 
another spell of it riding all ways of a Sunday, 
just as we did last night. And it's coming on to 
rain." 

Rain it did very quickly; but from post to post 
the horsemen passed, the sternly silent commander 
speaking only when giving the necessary orders to 
remedy so far as possible the disaster of the after- 
noon. Not till eleven, and then in a thoroughly 
drenched condition, did they reach the Morris House 
on Haarlem Heights. It was to no rest, however, 
that the general arrived; for, as he dismounted, 
Major Gibbs of his life guards informed him that 
the council of war he had called was gathered, and 
only awaited his attendance. 

" Get you some supper, gentlemen," he ordered, 
to such of his aides as were still of the party, " for 
'tis likely that you will have more riding when the 
council have deliberated." 

" Tis advice he might take himself to proper 



ANECDOTES AND STORIES 259 

advantage," said one of the juniors, while they 
were stripping off their wet coverings in a side 
room. 

" Ay," asserted Brereton. " The general uses us 
hard, Tilghman, but he uses himself harder." Then 
aloud he called, " Billy ! " 

"Yis, sah!" 

" Make a glass of rum punch and take it in to his 
Excellency." 

" Foh de Lord, sah, I doan dar go in, an' yar 
know marse neber drink no spirits till de day's work 
dun." 

" Make a dish of tea, then, you old coward, and 
I'll take it to him so soon as I get these slops off me. 
Tore George! How small-clothes stick when 
they're wet ! " 

The make-shift meal was still unfinished when 
the general's body-servant appeared with the tea. 
Taking it, Brereton marched boldly to the council 
door, and, giving a knock, he went in without 
awaiting a reply. 

The group of anxious-faced men about the table 
looked up, and Washington, with a frown, de- 
manded, " For what do you interrupt us, sir?" 

The young officer put the tea down on the map 
lying in front of the general. " Billy didn't dare 
take this to your Excellency, so I made bold to e'en 
bring it myself." 

" This is no time for tea, Colonel Brereton." 

" Tis no time for the army to lose their general," 
replied the aide. " I pray you drink it, sir, for our 
sake, if you won't for your own." 



260 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

A kindly look supplanted the sternness of the 
previous moment on the general's face. " I thank 
you for your thoughtfulness, Brereton," he said, 
raising the cup and pouring some of the steaming 
drink into the saucer. 



SELECTIONS 

FROM WASHINGTON'S SPEECHES 

AND WRITINGS 



SELECTIONS FROM THE RULES OF 
CIVILITY 

[Copied by Washington at the age of fourteen from 
an old translation of a French book of 1595. " Wash- 
ington was entirely aware," writes Owen Wister, " of 
the great influence for good exerted upon his own 
character by the Rules of Civility. It is a misfortune 
for all American boys in all our schools to-day, that 
they should be told the untrue and foolish story of the 
hatchet and the cherry tree, and denied the immense 
benefit of instruction from George Washington's 
authentic copy-book."] 

Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of an- 
other, though he were your enemy. 
v When you see a crime punished you may be in- 
wardly pleased ; but always show pity to the suffer- 
ing offender. 

Superfluous compliments and all affectation of 
ceremony are to be avoided, yet, where due, they 
are not to be neglected. 

Do not express joy before one sick or in pain, 
for that contrary passion will aggravate his misery. 

When a man does all he can, though it succeed 
not well, blame not him that did it. 

Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the dis- 
paragement of any. 

In your apparel be modest, and endeavor to ac- 
commodate Nature, rather than to procure admira- 
tion; keep to the fashion of your equals. 

Associate yourself with men of good quality, if 
263 



264 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to 
be alone than in bad company. 

Speak not injurious words neither in jest nor in 
earnest ; scoff at none, although they give occasion. 

Gaze not at the marks or blemishes of others, 
and ask not how they came. What you may speak 
in secret to your friend, deliver not before others. 

Nothing but harmony, honest industry, and fru- 
gality are necessary to make us a great people. 
First impressions are generally the most lasting. It 
is therefore absolutely necessary, if you mean to 
make any figure upon the stage, that you should take 
the first steps right. 

There is a destiny which has the control of our 
actions not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of 
Human Nature. 

Let your heart feel for the afflictions and dis- 
tresses of everyone, and let your hand give in pro- 
portion to your purse; remembering always the 
widow's mite, but that it is not everyone who asketh 
that deserveth charity; all, however, are worthy 
the inquiry, or the deserving may suffer. 

I consider storms and victory under the direc- 
tion of a wise Providence who no doubt directs 
them for the best purposes, and to bring round the 
greatest degree of happiness to the greatest number. 

Happiness depends more upon the internal frame 
of a person's mind, than on the externals in the 
world. 

The thinking part of mankind do not form their 
judgments from events, and that chief equity will 
ever attach equal glory to those actions which de- 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 265 

serve success, as to those which have been crowned 
with it. 

To see plants rise from the earth and flourish by 
the superior skill and bounty of the laborer, fills a 
contemplative mind with ideas which are more easy 
to be conceived than expressed. 

To constitute a dispute there must be two 
parties. To understand it well, both parties and all 
the circumstances must be fully heard; and to ac- 
commodate differences, temper and mutual forbear- 
ance are requisite. 

Idleness is disreputable under any circumstances ; 

(productive of no good, even when unaccompanied 
by vicious habits. 

It is not uncommon in prosperous gales to forget 
that adverse winds blow. 

Economy in all things is as commendable in the 
manager, as it is beneficial and desirable to the 
employer. 

It is unfortunate when men cannot or will not see 
danger at a distance ; or seeing it, are undetermined 
in the means which are necessary to avert or keep it 
afar off. 

Every man who is in the vigor of life ought to 
serve his country in whatever line it requires, and 
he is fit for. 

Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, 
agreeable, healthy, and profitable. It may, for a 
while, be irksome to do this, but that will wear off ; 
and the practice will produce a rich harvest forever 
thereafter, whether in public or in private walks of 
life. 



266 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 



SAID BY WASHINGTON 

To be prepared for war is one of the most ef- 
fectual means of preserving peace. 



There is a rank due to the United States among 
nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely 
lost, by the reputation of weakness. 



The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be ex- 
pected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules 
of order and right which Heaven itself has or- 
dained. 



The very idea of the power and right of the peo- 
ple to establish government presupposes the duty 
of every individual to obey the established gov- 
ernment. 



If there was the same propensity in mankind for 
investigating the motives, as there is for censuring 
the conduct, of public characters, it would be found 
that the censure so freely bestowed is oftentimes 
unmerited and uncharitable. 



Where is the man to be found who wishes to re- 
main indebted for the defense of his own person 
and property to the exertions, the bravery, and the 
blood of others, without making one generous ef- 
fort to repay the debt of honor and gratitude? 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 267 

There is no truth more thoroughly established 
than that there exists in the economy and course of 
nature t an indissoluble union between virtue and 
happiness, between dirty and advantage, between the 
genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous pol- 
icy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and 
felicity. 



Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence 
the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly 
awake. 



It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent 
alliances with any portion of the foreign world. 



The great rule of conduct for us in regard to for- 
eign nations is to have with them as little political 
connection as possible. 



There can be no greater error than to expect or 
calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. 



Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of 
any part of Europe, entangle our peace and pros- 
perity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, 
interest, humor, or caprice ? 



The name American must always exalt the just 
pride of Patriotism. 



To the efficacy and permanency of your union a 
government for the whole is indispensable. 



268 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Every attempt to alienate any portion of our 
country from the rest should be indignantly frowned 
upon. 



Let us impart all the blessings we possess, or ask 
for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind. 



Let us erect a standard to which the wise and 
honest may repair. 



'Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a 
necessary spring of popular government. 



It is incumbent upon every person of every de- 
scription to contribute to his country's welfare. 



It would be repugnant to the vital principles of 
our government virtually to exclude from public 
trusts, talents and virtue, unless accompanied by 
wealth. 



Give such encouragements to our own navigation 
as will render our commerce less dependent on for- 
eign bottoms. 



I have never made an appointment from a desire 
to serve a friend or relative. 



Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark 
of celestial fire, conscience. 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 269 

WASHINGTON BEFORE THE BATTLE OF 
LONG ISLAND, AUGUST, 1776 

The time is now near at hand which must prob- 
ably determine whether Americans are to be free- 
men or slaves ; whether they are to have any prop- 
erty they can call their own; whether their houses 
and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and 
themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness 
from which no human effort will deliver them. The 
fate of unborn millions will now depend, under 
God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our 
cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the 
choice of a brave resistance, or the most abject sub- 
mission. We have, therefore, to resolve to con- 
quer or to die. 

Our own, our country's honor, calls upon us for 
a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now 
shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the 
whole world. Let us, then, rely on the goodness of 
our cause and the aid of the Supreme Being, in 
whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage 
us to great and noble actions. The eyes of all our 
countrymen are now upon us; and we shall have 
their blessings and praises if, happily, we are the 
instruments of saving them from the tyranny medi- 
tated against them. Let us, therefore, animate and 
encourage each other, and show the whole world 
that a freeman contending for liberty on his own 
ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on 
earth. 



270 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Liberty, property, life, and honor are all at stake. 
Upon your courage and conduct rest the hopes of 
our bleeding and insulted country. Our wives, chil- 
dren, and parents expect safety from us only; and 
they have every reason to believe that Heaven will 
crown with success so just a cause. The enemy 
will endeavor to intimidate by show and appearance ; 
but remember they have been repulsed on various 
occasions by a few brave Americans. Their cause 
is bad, — their men are conscious of it; and, if op- 
posed with firmness and coolness on their first on- 
set, with our advantage of works and knowledge 
of the ground, the victory is most assuredly ours. 
Every good soldier will be silent and attentive, wait 
for orders, and reserve his fire until he is sure of 
doing execution. 



FROM VARIOUS LETTERS, SPEECHES, 
AND ADDRESSES 

To the Captains of Several Independent Companies 
in Virginia. Philadelphia, June, 7775 

" Gentlemen, 

" I am now about to bid adieu to the companies 
under your respective commands, at least for a time. 
I have launched into a wide and extensive field, too 
boundless for my abilities, and far, very far, beyond 
my experience. I am called by the unanimous voice 
of the Colonies to the command of the Continental 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 271 

army; an honor I did not aspire to, an honor I 
was solicitous to avoid, upon a full conviction of my 
inadequacy to the importance of the service. I have 
only to beg of you, therefore, before I go, by no 
means to relax in the discipline of your respective 
companies. 

" I cannot doubt but the asserters of freedom 
and the right of the Constitution are possessed of 
your most favorable regards and wishes for suc- 
cess. As descendants of freedom, and heirs with 
us of the same glorious inheritance, we flatter our- 
selves that, though divided by our situation, we are 
firmly united in sentiment. The cause of virtue 
and liberty is confined to no continent or climate. 
It comprehends within its capacious limits the wise 
and good, however dispersed and separated in space 
and distance." 

To the Inhabitants of the Island of Bermuda 

" While we are contending for our own liberty, we 
should be very cautious not to violate the rights of 
conscience in others, ever considering that God 
alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to Him 
only they are answerable." 

To Colonel Benedict Arnold, 1775 

" The man who means to commit no wrong will 
never be guilty of enormities; consequently he can 
never be unwilling to learn what is ascribed to him 
as foibles. If they are really such, the knowledge 
of them in a well-disposed mind will go half way 



2J2 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

towards a reform. If they are not errors he can ex- 
plain and justify the motives of his actions." 



To Patrick Henry, Valley Forge, 27th March, 1778 

" I have ever been happy in supposing that I had 
a place in your esteem, and the proof you have af- 
forded makes me peculiarly so. The favorable light 
in which you hold me is truly flattering ; but I should 
feel much regret, if I thought the happiness of 
America so intimately connected with my personal 
welfare as you so obligingly seem to consider it. 
All I can say is, that she has ever had, and I trust 
she ever will have, my honest exertions to promote 
her interest. I cannot hope that my services have 
been the best ; but my heart tells me they have been 
the best that I could render. 

" However it may be the practice of the world 
and those who see objects but partially or through 
a false medium, to consider that only as meritorious 
which is attended with success, I have accustomed 
myself to judge human actions very differently, and 
to appreciate them by the manner in which they are 
conducted more than by the event; which it is not 
in the power of human foresight and prudence to 
command. 

" My political creed is, to be wise in the choice of 
delegates, support them like gentlemen while they 
are our representatives, give them complete powers 
for all federal purposes, support them in the due ex- 
ercise thereof, and lastly, to compel them to close 
attendance in Congress during their delegation. 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 27$ 

" We ought not to look back unless it is to derive 
useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose 
of profiting by dearly bought experience. To en- 
veigh against things that are past and irremediable 
is unpleasing; but to steer clear of the shelves and 
rocks we have struck upon is the part of wisdom, 
equally as incumbent on political as other men who 
have their own little bark or that of others to nav- 
igate through the intricate paths of life, or the 
trackless ocean, to the haven of security or rest." 

Extracts from a Circular Letter Addressed to the 
Governors of All the States on Disbanding the 
Army, Newburgh, 8 June, 1783 

"Sir: — The great object for which I had the 
honor to hold an appointment in the service of my 
country, being accomplished, I am now preparing 
to resign it into the hands of Congress, and to re- 
turn to that domestic retirement which it is well 
known I left with the greatest reluctance; a retire- 
ment for which I have never ceased to sigh, through 
a long and painful absence, and in which I meditate 
to pass the remainder of life, in a state of undis- 
turbed repose. But before I carry this resolution 
into effect, I think it a duty incumbent on me to 
make this, my last official communication ; to con- 
gratulate you on the glorious events which Heaven 
has been pleased to produce in our favor; to offer 
my sentiments respecting some important subjects 
which appear to me to be intimately connected with 
the tranquillity of the United States, to take my 



274 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

leave of your excellency as a public character, and 
to give my final blessing to that country in whose 
service I have spent the prime of my life, for 
whose sake I have consumed so many anxious 
days and watchful nights, and whose happiness, be- 
ing so extremely dear to me, will always constitute 
no inconsiderable part of my own." 

From the same circular letter: 

" The foundation of our empire was not laid in 
the gloomy age of ignorance and superstition, but 
at an epoch when the rights of mankind were better 
understood and more clearly defined than at any 
former period. The researches of the human mind 
after social happiness have been carried to a great 
extent; the treasures of knowledge, acquired by 
the labors of philosophers, sages, and legislators 
through a long succession of years, are laid open for 
our use, and their collected wisdom may be happily 
applied in the establishment of our forms of gov- 
ernment." 

From the same: 

" The free cultivation of letters, the unbounded 
extension of commerce, the progressive refinement 
of manners, the growing liberality of sentiment, and, 
above all, the power and benign light of revelation, 
have had a meliorating influence on mankind, and 
increased the blessings of society. An indissoluble 
union of the states under one federal head — a sacred 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 275 

regard to public justice — the adoption of a proper 
peace establishment, and the prevalence of that 
pacific and friendly disposition among the people 
of the United States which will induce them to for- 
get their local prejudices and politics ; to make those 
mutual concessions which are requisite to the gen- 
eral prosperity, and in some instances to sacrifice 
their individual advantages to the interest of the 
community — these are the pillars on which the 
glorious fabric of our independence and national 
character must be supported. Liberty is the basis, 
and whoever would dare to sap the foundation or 
overturn the structure, under whatever specious 
pretext he may attempt it, will merit the bitterest 
execration, and the severest punishment which can 
be inflicted by his injured country.' 1 ' 

From the same : 

" I now make it my earnest prayer that God 
would have you and the State over which you pre- 
side in His holy protection, that He would incline 
the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of sub- 
ordination and obedience to the government; to en- 
tertain a brotherly affection and love for one an- 
other and for their fellow-citizens of the United 
States at large, and particularly for their brethren 
who have served in the field, and finally that He 
would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all 
to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean our- 
selves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper 
of mind, which were the characteristics of the Di- 



276 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

vine Author of our blessed religion, and without an 
humble imitation of whose example in these things 
we can never hope to be a happy nation.'* 



Washington on Slavery 

" There is not a man living who wishes more sin- 
cerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the aboli- 
tion of slavery; but there is only one proper and ef- 
fectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and 
that is by legislative authority, and this as far as 
my suffrage will go shall never be wanting." 

In a Letter to Lafayette, Washington Expresses His 
Views on Commerce 

" Although I pretend to no peculiar information 
respecting commercial affairs, nor any foresight 
into the scenes of futurity, yet, as a member of an 
infant empire, as a philanthropist by character, and 
if I may be allowed the expression, as a citizen of 
the great republic of humanity at large, I cannot 
help turning my attention sometimes to this subject. 
I would be understood to mean I cannot avoid re- 
flecting with pleasure on the probable influence that 
commerce may hereafter have on human manners 
and society in general. On these occasions I con- 
sider how mankind may be connected like this one 
great family of fraternal ties. I indulge a fond, 
perhaps an enthusiastic idea, that as the world is 
evidently much less barbarous than it has been, its 
melioration must still be progressive; that nations 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 277 

are becoming more humanized in their policy, that 
the subjects of ambition and causes for hostility are 
daily diminishing, and in fine, that the period is not 
very remote when the benefits of a liberal and free 
commerce will pretty generally succeed to the de- 
vastations and horrors of war. 

" Men's minds are as varied as their faces, and 
where the motives to their actions are pure, the 
operation of the former is no more to be imputed 
to them as a crime than the appearance of the lat- 
ter; for both being the work of nature, are equally 
unavoidable. Liberality and charity, instead of 
clamor and misrepresentation, which latter only 
serve to foment the passions without enlightening 
the understanding, ought to govern in all disputes 
about matters of importance." 

From a Letter, 1793 

" If it can be esteemed a happiness to live in an 
age productive of great and interesting events, we 
of the present age are very highly favored. The 
rapidity of national revolutions appears no less 
astonishing than their magnitude. In what they will 
terminate is known only to the Great Ruler of 
events ; and confiding in His wisdom and goodness, 
we may safely trust the issue to Him, without per- 
plexing ourselves to seek for that which is beyond 
human ken, only taking care to perform the parts 
assigned to us in a way that reason and our own 
conscience approve." 



278 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

From a Speech to Both Houses of Congress, 1790 

" To administer justice to and receive it from 
every power with whom they are connected will, I 
hope, be always found the prominent feature in the 
administration of this country; and I flatter my- 
self that nothing short of imperious necessity can 
occasion a breach with any of them. 

Knowledge is in every country the surest basis 
of public happiness. In one of which the measures 
of government receive their impression so immedi- 
ately from the sense of the community as in ours, it 
is proportionably essential. To the security of a 
free constitution it contributes in various ways; by 
convincing those who are entrusted with the public 
administration that every valuable end of govern- 
ment is best answered by the enlightened confidence 
of the people, and by teaching the people themselves 
to know and to value their own rights; to discern 
and to provide against invasions of them; to dis- 
tinguish between oppression and the necessary ex- 
ercise of lawful authority ; to discriminate the spirit 
of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the 
first, avoiding the latter, and uniting a speedy but 
temperate vigilance against encroachment with an 
inviolable respect to the laws." 

From a Speech to Both Houses of Congress, 1794 

" Let praise be given to every description of citi- 
zens. Let them persevere in their affectionate vig- 
ilance over that precious depository of American 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 279 

happiness, the Constitution of the United States. 
Let them cherish it, too, for the sake of those, from 
every clime, daily seeking a dwelling in our land. 
" Let us unite, therefore, in imploring the Su- 
preme Ruler of nations to spread His holy protec- 
tion over these United States; to enable us at all 
times to root out internal seditions and put invasion 
to flight ; to perpetuate to our country that prosper- 
ity which His goodness has already conferred; and 
to verify the anticipations of this government being 
a safeguard to human rights.'' 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL TO THE 
ARMY 

Dated at Rocky Hill, near Princeton, New Jersey, 
November 2, 1783 

It is universally acknowledged that the enlarged 
prospects of happiness, opened by the confirmation 
of our independence and sovereignty, almost ex- 
ceed the power of description. And shall not the 
brave men who have contributed so essentially to 
these inestimable acquisitions, retiring from the 
field of war to the field of agriculture, participate in 
all the blessings which have been obtained? In 
such a republic, who will exclude them from the 
rights of citizens and the fruits of their labors? 

To those hardy soldiers who are actuated by the 
spirit of adventure, the fisheries will afford ample 



280 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

and profitable employment, and the extensive and 
fertile regions of the West will yield a most happy 
asylum to those who, fond of domestic employment, 
are seeking personal independence. 

Little is now wanting to enable the soldier to 
change the military character into that of a citi- 
zen but that steady and decent behavior which has 
distinguished not only the army under this im- 
mediate command, but the different detachments and 
separate armies through the course of the war. To 
the various branches of the army the general takes 
this last and solemn opportunity of professing his 
inviolable attachment and friendship. He can only 
again offer in their behalf his recommendations to 
their grateful country and his prayers to the God 
of armies. May ample justice be done them here, 
and may favors, both here and hereafter, attend 
those who, under the divine auspices, have secured 
innumerable blessings for others ! 

With these wishes and this benediction the com- 
mander-in-chief is about to retire from service. The 
curtain of separation will soon be drawn, and the 
military scene to him will be closed forever ! 



PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RESPONSE 
TO THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR ON RE- 
CEIPT OF THE COLORS OF FRANCE, 1769 «- ) ] 

Born, sir, in a land of liberty, having early 
learned its value, having engaged in a perilous con- 
flict to defend it, having, in a word, devoted the 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 281 

best years of my life to secure it a permanent estab- 
lishment in our own country, my anxious recollec- 
tions, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes 
are irresistibly excited whensoever, in any country, 
I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of free- 
dom. But above all, the events of the French 
Revolution have produced the deepest solicitude as 
well as the highest admiration. To call your na- 
tion brave were to pronounce but common praise. 
Wonderful people! Ages to come will read with 
astonishment the history of your brilliant exploits. 

I rejoice that the period of your toils and of your 
immense sacrifices is approaching. I rejoice that 
the interesting revolutionary movements of so many 
years have issued in the formation of a constitution 
designated to give permanency to the great object 
for which you have contended. I rejoice that lib- 
erty, which you have so long embraced with en- 
thusiasm, liberty, of which you have been the in- 
vincible defenders, now finds an asylum in the bosom 
of a regularly organized government; a govern- 
ment which, being formed to secure the happiness 
of the French people, corresponds with the ardent 
wishes of my heart, while it gratifies the pride of 
every citizen of the United States by its resemblance 
to their own. On these glorious events accept, sir, 
my sincere congratulations. 

In delivering to you these sentiments, I express 
not my own feelings only, but those of my fellow- 
citizens, in relation to the commencement, the prog- 
ress, and the issue of the French Revolution; and 
they will cordially join with me in purest wishes to 



282 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

the Supreme Being that the citizens of our sister 
republic, our magnanimous allies, may soon enjoy, 
in peace, that liberty which they have purchased at 
so great a price, and all the happiness which liberty 
can bestow. 

I receive, sir, with lively sensibility, the symbol 
of the triumphs and of the enfranchisements of your 
nation, the colors of France, which you have now 
presented to the United States. The transaction 
will be announced to Congress, and the colors will 
be deposited with those archives of the United States 
which are at once the evidences and the memorials 
of their freedom and independence. May these be 
perpetual ; and may the friendship of the two re- 
publics be commensurate with their existence ! 



WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 

To the People of the United States. September 
17, 1796 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens : 

The period for a new election of a citizen, to ad- 
minister the executive Government of the United 
States, being not far distant, and the time actually 
arrived, when your thoughts must be employed in 
designating the person, who is to be clothed with 
that important trust, it appears to me proper, espe- 
cially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression 
of the public voice, that I should now apprise you 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 283 

of the resolution I have formed, to decline being 
considered among the number of those, out of whom 
a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice 
to be assured, that this resolution has not been 
taken without a strict regard to all the considerations 
appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful 
citizen to his country; and that, in withdrawing the 
tender of service which silence in my situation 
might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of 
zeal for your future interest ; no deficiency of grate- 
ful respect for your past kindness; but am sup- 
ported by a full conviction that the step is com- 
patible with both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in 
the office to which your suffrages have twice called 
me, have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to 
the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what 
appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped, 
that it would have been much earlier in my power, 
consistently with motives, which I was not at lib- 
erty to disregard, to return to that retirement, from 
which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength 
of my inclination to do this, previous to the last 
election, had even led to the preparation of an ad- 
dress to declare it to you; but mature reflection on 
the then perplexed and critical posture of our af- 
fairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous ad- 
vice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled 
me to abandon the idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external 
as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of 



284 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty, 
or propriety ; and am persuaded, whatever partiality 
may be retained for my services, that, in the pres- 
ent circumstances of our country, you will not dis- 
approve my determination to retire. 

The impressions, with which I first undertook the 
arduous trust, were explained on the proper occa- 
sion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, 
that I have, with good intentions, contributed 
towards the organization and administration of the 
government the best exertions of which a very fal- 
lible judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in 
the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, ex- 
perience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the 
eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to dif- 
fidence of myself; and every day the increasing 
weight of years admonishes me more and more, that 
the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it 
will be welcome. Satisfied, that, if any circum- 
stances have given peculiar value to my services, 
they were temporary, I have the consolation to be- 
lieve, that, while choice and prudence invite me to 
quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment, which is in- 
tended to terminate the career of my public life, 
my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep 
acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude, which I 
owe to my beloved country for the many honors it 
has conferred upon me ; still more for the steadfast 
confidence with which it has supported me ; and for 
the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of mani- 
festing my inviolable attachment, by services faith- 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 285 

ful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal 
to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country 
from these services, let it always be remembered to 
your praise, and as an instructive example in our 
annals, that under circumstances in which the 
passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to 
mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, 
vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situa- 
tions in which not unfrequently want of success has 
countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of 
your support was the essential prop of the efforts, 
and a guarantee of the plans by which they were 
effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I 
shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong in- 
citement to unceasing vows that Heaven may con- 
tinue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; 
that your union and brotherly affection may be per- 
petual ; that the free Constitution, which is the work 
of your hands, may be sacredly maintained ; that its 
administration in every department may be stamped 
with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happi- 
ness of the people of these States, under the auspices 
of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a 
preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing, 
as will acquire for them the glory of recommending 
it to the applause, the affection and adoption of 
every nation, which is yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude 
for your welfare, which cannot end but with my 
life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to 
that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the 
present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and 



286 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

to recommend to your frequent review, some senti- 
ments, which are the result of much reflection, of 
no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to 
me all important to the permanency of your felicity 
as a People. These will be offered to you with 
the more freedom, as you can only see in them the 
disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can 
possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. 
Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your 
indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former 
and not dissimilar occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every 
ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of 
mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attach- 
ment. 

The unity of Government, which constitutes you 
one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so : 
for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real in- 
dependence, the support of your tranquillity at home, 
your peace abroad; of your safety; of your pros- 
perity; of that very liberty, which you so highly 
prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from differ- 
ent causes and from different quarters, much pains 
will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken 
in your minds the conviction of this truth ; as this is 
the point in your political fortress against which the 
batteries of internal and external enemies will be 
most constantly and actively (though often 
covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite 
moment, that you should properly estimate the im- 
mense value of your national Union to your col- 
lective and individual happiness; that you should 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 287 

cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attach- 
ment to it; accustoming yourself to think and speak 
of it as of the Palladium of your political safety 
and prosperity; watching for its preservation with 
jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may 
suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be 
abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the first 
dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion 
of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the 
sacred ties which now link together the various 
parts. 

For this you have every inducement of sympathy 
and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a 
common country, that country has a right to con- 
centrate your affections. The name of AMERICAN, 
which belongs to you, in your national capacity, 
must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more 
than any appellation derived from local discrim- 
inations. With slight shades of difference, you have 
the same religion, manners, habits, and political 
principles. You have in a common cause fought 
and triumphed together ; the Independence and Lib- 
erty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and 
joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and 
successes. 

But these considerations, however powerfully 
they address themselves to your sensibility, are 
greatly outweighed by those, which apply more im- 
mediately to your interest. ' Here, every portion 
of our country finds the most commanding motives 
for carefully guarding and preserving the Union of 
the whole. 



2 S3 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with 
the South protected by the equal laws of a com- 
mon Government, finds, in the productions of the 
latter, great additional resources of maritime and 
commercial enterprise and precious materials of 
manufacturing industry. The South, in the same 
intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, 
sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. 
Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of 
the North, it finds its particular navigation invig- 
orated; and, while it contributes in different ways, 
to nourish and increase the general mass of the na- 
tional navigation, it looks forward to the protection 
of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally 
adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the 
West, already finds, and in the progressive improve- 
ment of interior communications by land and water, 
will more and more find, a valuable vent for the 
commodities which it brings from abroad, or manu- 
factures at home. The West derives from the East 
supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, 
what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must 
of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensa- 
ble outlets for its own productions to the weight, in- 
fluences, and the future maritime strength of the At- 
lantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble 
community of interest as one nation. Any other 
tenure by which the West can hold this essential ad- 
vantage, whether derived from its own separate 
strength, or from an apostate and unnatural con- 
nection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically 
precarious. 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 289 

While, then, every part of our country thus feels 
an immediate and particular interest in Union, all 
the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united 
mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater 
resource, proportionally greater security from ex- 
ternal danger, a less frequent interruption of their 
peace by foreign nations ; and, what is of inestimable 
value, they must derive from Union an exemption 
from those broils and wars between themselves, 
which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not 
tied together by the same Governments, which their 
own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, 
but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, 
and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, 
likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those over- 
grown military establishments, which, under any 
form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and 
which are to be regarded as particularly hostile 
to Republican Liberty. In this sense it is, that 
your Union ought to be considered as a main 
prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one 
ought to endear to you the preservation of the 
other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive language 
to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit 
the continuance of the UNION as a primary object 
of Patriotic desire. Is there a doubt, whether a 
common government can embrace so large a sphere ? 
Let experience solve it. To listen to mere specula- 
tion in such a case were criminal. We are author- 
ized to hope, that a proper organization of the 
whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments 



290 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy 
issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and 
full experiment. With such powerful and obvious 
motives to Union, affecting all parts of our country, 
while experience shall not have demonstrated its 
impracticability, there will always be reason to dis- 
trust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, 
may endeavor to weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes, which may disturb 
our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern, 
that any ground should have been furnished for 
characterizing parties by Geographical discrimina- 
tions, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and West- 
ern; whence designing men may endeavor to excite 
a belief, that there is a real difference of local in- 
terests and views. One of the expedients of party 
to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to 
misrepresent the opinions and aims of other dis- 
tricts. You cannot shield yourselves too much 
against the jealousies and heart-burnings, which 
spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to 
render alien to each other those who ought to be 
bound together by fraternal affection. The inhab- 
itants of our western country have lately had a use- 
ful lesson on this head ; they have seen, in the nego- 
tiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous rati- 
fication by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and 
in the universal satisfaction at that event, through- 
out the United States, a decisive proof how un- 
founded were the suspicions propagated among 
them of a policy in the General Government and in 
the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 291 

regard to the MISSISSIPPI; they have been wit- 
nesses to the formation of two treaties, that with 
Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to 
them everything they could desire, in respect to our 
foreign relations, towards confirming their pros- 
perity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the 
preservation of these advantages on the UNION by 
which they were procured? Will they not hence- 
forth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, 
who would sever them from their brethren, and con- 
nect them with aliens? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a 
Government for the whole is indispensable. No al- 
liances, however strict, between the parts can be an 
adequate substitute, they must inevitably experience 
the infractions and interruptions, which all alliances 
in all times have experienced. Sensible of this mo- 
mentous truth, you have improved upon your first 
essay, by the adoption of a Constitution of Govern- 
ment better calculated than your former for an in- 
timate Union and for the efficacious management of 
your common concerns, i This Government, the off- 
spring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, 
adopted upon full investigation and mature delib- 
eration, completely free in its principles, in the dis- 
tribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, 
and containing within itself a provision for its own 
amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and 
your support. Respect for its authority, compliance 
with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are 
duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true 
Liberty. The basis of our political systems is the 



292 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

right of the people to make and to alter their Con- 
stitutions of Government. But the Constitution 
which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit 
and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly 
obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power 
and the right of the people to establish Government 
presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the 
established Government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all 
combinations and associations, under whatever 
plausible character, with the real design to direct, 
control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation 
and action of the constituted authorities, are de- 
structive of this fundamental principle and of fatal 
tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give 
an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the 
place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of 
a party, often a small but artful and enterprising 
minority of the community; and, according to the 
alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the 
public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted 
and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the 
organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested 
by common counsels, and modified by mutual in- 
terests. 

However combinations or associations of the 
above descriptions may now and then answer pop- 
ular ends, they are likely in the course of time and 
things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, 
ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to 
subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for 
themselves the reins of Government; destroying 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 293 

afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them 
to unjust dominion. 

Towards the preservation of your Government, 
and the permanency of your present happy state, it 
is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance 
irregular opposition to its acknowledged authority, 
but also that you resist with care the spirit of in- 
novation upon its principles, however specious the 
pretext. One method of assault may be to effect, 
in the forms of the Constitution, alterations, which 
will impair the energy of the system, and thiasJ:o un- 
dermine what cannot be directly overthrown.' In all 
the changes to which you may be invited, remember 
thatjime and habit are at least as necessary to fix 
the true character of governments, as of other 
human institutions; that experience is the surest 
standard, by which to test the real tendency of the 
existing constitution of a country; that facility in 
changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and 
opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the 
endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and re- 
member, especially, that, for the efficient manage- 
ment of your common interests, in a country so ex- 
tensive as ours, a Government of as much vigor as is 
consistent with the perfect security of liberty is in- 
dispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a gov- 
ernment, with powers properly distributed and ad- 
justed, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else 
than a name, where the Government is too feeble to 
withstand the enterprise of faction, to confine each 
member of the society within the limits prescribed 
by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and 



294 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and 
property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger of 
parties in the state, with particular reference to 
the founding of them on geographical discrimina- 
tions. Let me now take a more comprehensive 
view, and warn you in the most solemn manner 
against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, gen- 
erally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable, from our 
nature, having its root in the strongest passions of 
the human mind. It exists under different shapes 
in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, 
or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it 
is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their 
worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction over an- 
other, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural 
to party dissension, which in different ages and coun- 
tries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, 
is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at 
length to a more formal and permanent despotism. 
The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually 
incline the minds of men to seek security, and re- 
pose in the absolute power of an individual; and 
sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, 
more able or more fortunate than his competitors, 
turns this disposition to the purposes of his own 
elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity of this 
kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out 
of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 295 

the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the 
interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and 
restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the Public Councils, 
and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates 
the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false 
alarms; kindles the animosity of one party against 
another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. 
It opens the door to foreign influence and corrup- 
tion which find a facilitated access to the Govern- 
ment itself through the channels of party passions. 
Thus the policy and the will of one country are sub- 
jected to the policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion, that parties in free countries 
are useful checks upon the administration of the 
Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of 
Liberty. This within certain limits is probably 
true; and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, 
Patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with 
favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of a 
popular character, in Governments purely elective, 
it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their 
natural tendency, it is certain there will always be 
enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. 
And, there being constant danger of excess, the ef- 
fort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to miti- 
gate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it 
demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting 
into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should con- 
sume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of think- 
ing in a free country should inspire caution in those 



296 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

intrusted with its administrations, to confine them- 
selves within their respective constitutional spheres, 
avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one de- 
partment to encroach upon another. The spirit of 
encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all 
the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever 
the form of Government, a real despotism. A just 
estimate of that love of power, and proneness to 
abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is 
sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of the position. 
The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of 
political power, by dividing and distributing it into 
different depositories, and constituting each the 
Guardian of the Public Weal against invasions by 
the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient 
and modern ; some of them in our country and under 
our own eyes. To preserve them must be as neces- 
sary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the 
people, the distribution or modification of the con- 
stitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it 
be corrected by an amendment in the way which 
the Constitution designates. But let there be no 
change by usurpation; for, though this in one in- 
stance may be the instrument of good, it is the cus- 
tomary weapon by which free Governments are de- 
stroyed. The precedent must always greatly over- 
balance in permanent evil any partial or transient 
benefit, which the use can at any time yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to 
political prosperity, Religion and Morality are in- 
dispensable supports. In vain would that man 
claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 297 

subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these 
firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. 
The mere Politician, equally with the pious m^HT" 
ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume 
could not trace all their connections with private and 
public felcity. Let it simply be asked, Where is 
the security for property, for reputation, for life, if 
the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, 
which are the instruments of investigation in Courts 
of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the sup- 
position that morality can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the in- 
fluence of refined education on minds of peculiar 
structure, reason and experience both forbid us to 
expect, that national morality can prevail in ex- 
clusion of religious principle. 

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is 
a necessary spring of a popular Government. The 
rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to 
every species of free Government. Who that is a 
sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon 
attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? 

Promote, then, as an object of primary im- 
portance, institutions for the general diffusion of 
knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a 
Government gives force to public opinion, it is es- 
sential that public opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength and 
security, cherish public credit. One method of pre- 
serving it is to use it as sparingly as possible ; avoid- 
ing occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but 
remembering also that timely disbursements to pre- 



0^ 



298 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

pare for danger frequently prevent much greater 
disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the ac- 
cumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions 
of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of 
peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable 
wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throw- 
ing upon posterity the burden, which we ourselves 
ought to bear. The execution of these maxims be- 
longs to your representatives, but it is necessary 
that the public opinion should co-operate. To facil- 
itate to them the performance of their duty, it is es- 
sential that you should practically bear in mind, 
that towards the payment of debts there must be 
Revenue; that to have Revenue there must be 
taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not 
more or less inconvenient and unpleasant, that the 
intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from this selec- 
tion of the proper objects (which is always a choice 
of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a 
candid construction of the conduct of the Govern- 
ment in making it, and for a spirit of acquies- 
cence in the measures for obtaining revenue, 
which the public exigencies may at any time 
dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice towards all Na- 
tions; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Re- 
ligion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it 
be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It 
will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no 
distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind 
the magnanimous and too novel example of a peo- 
ple always guided by an exalted justice and benev- 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 299 

olence. Who can doubt, that, in the course of time 
and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly 
repay any temporary advantages which might be 
lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that 
Providence has not connected the permanent felicity 
of a Nation with its Virtue? The experiment, at 
least, is recommended by every sentiment which en- 
nobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impos- 
sible by its vices ? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more 
essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies 
against particular Nations, and passionate attach- 
ments for others, should be excluded; and that, in 
place of them, just and amicable feelings towards 
all should be cultivated. The Nation, which in- 
dulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an 
habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave to its 
animosity or to its affection, either of which is suf- 
ficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. 
Antipathy in one nation against another disposes 
each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay 
hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty 
and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions 
of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, ob- 
stinate, venomed, and bloody contests. The Nation 
prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes im- 
pels to war the Government, contrary to the best 
calculations of policy. The Government sometimes 
participates in the national propensity and adopts 
through passion what reason would reject; at other 
times, it makes the animosity of the nation sub- 
servient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, 



3 oo WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

ambition, and other sinister and pernicious mo- 
tives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the lib- 
erty, of Nations has been the victim. 

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Na- 
tion for another produces a variety of evils. Sym- 
pathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illu- 
sion of an imaginary common interest, in cases 
where no real common interest exists, and infusing 
into one the enmities of the other, betrays the 
former into a participation in the quarrels and wars 
of the latter, without adequate inducement or justi- 
fication. It leads also to concessions to the favorite 
Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt 
doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; 
by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have 
been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and 
a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom 
equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to am- 
bitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote 
themselves to the favorite Nation), facility to be- 
tray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, 
without odium, sometimes even with popularity; 
gilding, with the appearance of a virtuous sense of 
obligation, a commendable deference for public 
opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the 
base of foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, 
or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable 
ways, such attachments are particularly alarming 
to the truly enlightened and independent Patriot. 
How many opportunities do they afford to tamper 
with domestic factions, to practice the arts of se- 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 301 

duction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or 
awe the Public Councils! Such an attachment of 
a small or weak, towards a great and powerful Na- 
tion, dooms the former to be the satellite of the 
latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I 
conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens), the jeal- 
ousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake ; 
since history and experience prove that foreign 
influence is one of the most baneful foes of Re- 
publican Government/ But that jealousy to be use^ 
ful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instru- 
ment of the very influence to be avoided, instead 
of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one 
foreign Nation, and excessive dislike of another, 
cause those whom they actuate to see danger only 
on one side, and serve to veil and even second the 
arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who 
may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable 
to become suspected and odious ; while its tools and 
dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the peo- 
ple, to surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to 
foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial re- 
lations, to have with them as little political connec- 
tion as possible. So far as we have already formed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good 
faith. Here let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to 
us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence 
she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the 
causes of which are essentially foreign to our con- 



302 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

cerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to 
implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary 
vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary com- 
binations and collisions of her friendships or en- 
mities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites and 
enables us to pursue a different course. If we re- 
main one people, under an efficient Government, the 
period is not far off when we may defy material 
injury from external annoyance; when we may take 
such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we 
may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously re- 
spected; when belligerent nations, under the im- 
possibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not 
lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we 
may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by 
justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situ- 
ation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign 
ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with 
that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival- 
ship, interest, humor, or caprice? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent 
alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so 
far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for 
let me not be understood as capable of patronizing 
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the 
maxim no less applicable to public than to private 
affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I 
repeat it, therefoie, let those engagements be ob- 
served in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 303 

it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend 
them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable 
establishments, in a respectable defensive posture, 
we may safely trust to temporary alliances for ex- 
traordinary emergencies. 

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are 
recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. 
But even our commercial policy should hold an equal 
and impartial hand ; neither seeking nor granting ex- 
clusive favors or preferences ; consulting the natural 
course of things; diffusing and diversifying by 
gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing 
nothing; establishing, with powers so disposed, in 
order to give trade a stable course, to define the 
rights of our merchants, and to enable the Govern- 
ment to support them, conventional rules of inter- 
course, the best that present circumstances and 
mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and li- 
able to be from time to time abandoned or varied, 
as experience and circumstances shall dictate; con- 
stantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation 
to look for disinterested favors from another; that 
it must pay with a portion of its independence for 
whatever it may accept under that character; that, 
by such acceptance, it may place itself in the con- 
dition of having given equivalents for nominal 
favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude 
for not giving more. There can be no greater error 
than to expect or calculate upon real favors from 
nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience 
must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. 



304 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels 
of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope 
they will make the strong and lasting impression I 
could wish ; that they will control the usual current 
of the passions or prevent our Nation from running 
the course which has hitherto marked the destiny 
of Nations. But, if I may even flatter myself, that 
they may be productive of some partial benefit, some 
occasional good ; that they may now and then recur 
to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against 
the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against 
the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope 
will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your 
welfare, by which they have been dictated. 

How far in the discharge of my official duties I 
have been guided by the principles which have been 
delineated, the public records and other evidences 
of my conduct must witness to you and to the 
world. To myself, the assurance of my own con- 
science is, that I have at least believed myself to be 
guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, 
my Proclamation of the 226. of April, 1793, is the 
index of my Plan. Sanctioned by your approving 
voice, and by that of your Representatives of both 
Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has 
continually governed me uninfluenced by any at- 
tempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the 
best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that 
our country, under all the circumstances of the case, 
had a right to take, and was bound in duty and 



SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 305 

interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken 
it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, 
to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and 
firmness. 

The considerations, which respect the right to 
hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occa- 
sion to detail. I will only observe, that, according 
to my understanding of the matter, that right, so 
far from being denied by any of the Belligerent 
Powers, has been virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be 
inferred, without anything more, from the obliga- 
tion which justice and humanity impose on every 
Nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to main- 
tain inviolate the relations of peace and amity 
towards other Nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing that 
conduct will best be referred to your own re- 
flections and experience. With me, a predominant 
motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our 
country to settle and mature its yet recent institu- 
tions, and to progress without interruption to that 
degree of strength and consistency, which is neces- 
sary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of 
its own fortunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my admin- 
istration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I 
am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to 
think it probable that I may have committed many 
errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech 
the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which 
they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope, 



3 o6 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

that my Country will never cease to view them with 
indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my 
life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the 
faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to 
oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions 
of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, 
and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which 
is so natural to a man, who views in it the native 
soil of himself and his progenitors for several gen- 
erations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that 
retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, with- 
out alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the 
midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of 
good laws under a free Government, the ever favor- 
ite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I 
trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. 



XI 
EXERCISES 



DECORATIONS FOR WASHINGTON'S 
BIRTHDAY EXERCISES 

The hall in which the exercises in celebration of 
Washington's Birthday are held should be decorated 
with all the patriotic emblems obtainable, — flags, 
banners, flowers, etc. ; including a portrait of Wash- 
ington centrally and prominently exhibited, with the 
motto, " First in war, etc.," and the figures 1732 
and 1799, the dates of his birth and death; the 
former trimmed with flowers, the latter with crepe. 
Nothing available should be omitted to render the 
hall as bright and attractive as possible. 

The orations should be delivered by boys, but the 
other portions of the exercises may be rendered by 
girls, or by both girls and boys, as may be found 
most suitable to the text and the occasion. 



SOME YEARS IN WASHINGTON'S LIFE 

BY M. LIZZIE STANLEY 

An Exercise for Boys 
From " The Popular Educator " 

Let the scholars who represent the ghosts of the 
vanished years stand in the background and come 
forth as they are called. Each should bear in his 

309 



3 io WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

hand a standard with the date of his year in large 
letters upon it, or wear a badge with the same. 
Hang a large picture of Washington on the wall; 
above it place the motto, "First in war, first in 
peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen/' and 
beneath it the dates of his birth and death. 

Scholar. 

This wintry month, of storm and cold 
Doth in its rough old heart enfold 
A memory bright as burnished gold, 
Which still lives on while years grow old. 
It pales not with the lapse of time, 
But burns with steady glow sublime — 
Through all the years from age to age, 
A light upon our history's page — 
The name and memory of one, 
Our country's hero — Washington. 

School. 

Go, ring the bells and fire each gun 
In honor of George Washington. 

Scholar. 

Come, boys, let's have some historic fun, 
Its theme to be grand Washington, 
'Tis better far than simple play, 
So range yourselves in close array, 
While each in turn his deeds do cite, 
And thus we'll keep his memory bright. 



EXERCISES • 311 

Scholar. 

Call up the ghosts of the vanished years, 
And question each as he appears. 

School. 

Aha! ye years that thought ye were gone, 
We'll call you back with your faces wan. 

(Six or More Voices in Concert.) 

Arise, thou ghost of seventeen thirty-two, 
And to our questions give us answers true. 
What knowest thou of Washington, the grave? 
What canst thou tell of Washington, the brave? 

(Arise 1732.) 

In February of my year, 

Unto my mind 'tis very clear, 

Upon the twenty-second day, 

In old Virginia far away, 

Was born a sweet and gentle child, 

On whom the heavens looked down and smiled. 

Voices. 
Is that all thou canst tell? 

(1732 speaks again.) 

Ah! there's another thing, just one: 
They called the child George Washington. 



312 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

[Retire. 



On all things else I am but dumb; 
Ask of the years that after come. 



Voices. 

Arise, ye ghosts of his youthful days, 
And tell us of his acts and ways. 

(Arise 1733, 1735, 1738, 1741, 1743, and 1752. 
Each speaks in turn.) 

1733. In seventeen hundred thirty-three 
He was a baby, full of glee. 

1735. In seventeen hundred thirty-five 

He was a child, all wide-awake, alive. 

1738. I speak for seventeen thirty-eight, 

He told no falsehood, small or great. 

1741. Thus speak the lips of seventeen forty-one: 
His work in copybooks was nearly done. 

1743. In seventeen hundred forty-three 
He loved in military sports to be. 

1752. My days of seventeen fifty-two 

No finer form could bring to view. 

Voices. 

Away, ye years! No more, no more! 

[They retire. 
Arise, thou ghost of fifty-four. 



EXERCISES 313 

(Arise 1754.) 

The French and Indian War this year begun, 
Its first gun fired by youthful Washington; 
The shots flew fast from hidden foe, 
And many a one was then laid low, 
Yet never a wound that grand form felt, 
Though shots like rain at him were dealt. 
Old Indian chiefs declared a charm 
Preserved his life from every harm. 

[Retire. 

Voices. 

Come forth, ye vanished seventeen seventy-five. 
No man methinks that knew thee is alive. 

(Arise 1775.) 

I proudly rise from the vanished past, 
Behold a dark cloud gathering fast! 
At first no bigger than a hand, 
'Tis spreading over all the land, 
And men are hurrying here and there, 
Their brows all grave with anxious care. 
Upon the green at Cambridge gaze, 
List to the shouts the people raise, 
As on his war-horse, proud and calm, 
Sits he, the nation's strong right arm; 
Beneath the spreading elm-tree's shade, 
Commander-in-chief he there is made 
Of young America's armies all. 
Who is it thus the people call? 



3 i4 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

'Tis Washington, the star of light, 

That shone through all the country's night. 

[Retire. 

Voices. 

Come back, ye years that now are o'er, 
And tell us of this man yet more. 

(Arise 1776 and 1777. In concert.) 

Together we rise to speak his fame, 
Who won a grand, immortal name 
At Trenton and at Princeton too. 
More brilliant deeds where can we view? 
On History's page they brightly gleam. 
Him " first in war " we rightly deem. 

[Retire. 

Voices. 

Behold a shadow dark and weighty! 

Stand forth, thou ghost of seventeen eighty. 

(Arise 1780.) 

Hunger and cold, and suffering great 
In my last days was the sad fate 
Of Washington and his soldiers brave. 
The name " hard winter " to me clave. 
But still the grand old patriot fire 
Within one breast did ne'er expire, 



EXERCISES 315 

In cause so grand he placed a faith sublime, 
That far outweighed the sorrows of the time. 

[Retire. 

Voices. 

What canst thou tell us, seventeen eighty-one, 
Of this far-famed, immortal Washington? 

(Arise 1781.) 

I see the British soldiers, one by one, 

Surrendering their arms to Washington. 

The war of revolution now is o'er, 

And joyful shouts from every hillside pour. 

As soon as war's black flag is furled, 

The admiration of the world, 

Bearing the love of countless grateful hearts, 

George Washington unto his home departs. 

The " first in war," and " first in peace," 

His memory shall never cease. 

[Retire. 

Voices. 

Once more we call. Come forth and shine, 
Spirit of seventeen eighty-nine. 

(Arise 1789.) 

My year beheld George Washington 
Above all men the ruling one, 



316 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

[Retire. 



Of the United States first President, 
His name a glory to our country lent. 



Voices. 

Come forth, thou ghost, the last in line; 
Come back, oh seventeen ninety-nine. 

(Arise 1799.) 

I rise with sorrow in my face, 

Which time can never quite efface. 

In the last month of the Last year 

Of the LAST century (dost thou hear?) 

There passed away a kingly soul, 

And sadly all the bells did toll ; 

The people mourned their leader much; 

Their feelings in one mighty rush 

Swept back o'er all the years gone by, 

And heartfelt was the nation's cry 

O'er Washington whom tongue and pen 

Proclaim the first in hearts of countrymen. 

[Retire. 

School. 

" First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts 
of his countrymen." 

Voices. 

Who would have thought the vanished years 
Could come back thus with smiles and tears! 



EXERCISES 317 

(The years come hack in procession, 1732 in ad- 
vance, and recite together.) 

Together we come farewell to say, 

Ere in our graves we hide away. 

Till another year hath passed its round, 

Our voices shall utter forth no sound. 

Our lips have only told a part 

About this great and noble heart; 

But go and study history's page, 

You'll find him there from age to age. 

Before we go a challenge brave we send 

Unto this year, and on till time shall end, 

To e'er produce a greater one 

Than our immortal Washington. 

[Pass out in order, repeating 
" Farewell, farewell." 



If there is a bell on the school-building, have 
some boy at this point ring it with bright, 
quick strokes. 



Scholar. 

List! I hear the bells a-ringing, 
High within their steeples swinging. 
Loud let them ring, and ring, and ring, 
And all abroad their music fling, 
For honor doth belong to him 
Whose memory ages cannot dim. 



318 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 
School. 

Ay, ring the bells, and raise the shout, 
And drag the massive cannon out, 
Let all unite as though in one 
To praise immortal Washington. 

School sing in closing "Speed Our Repub- 
lic/' etc. , or some other patriotic hymn. 



SOMETHING BETTER 

BY CLARA J. DENTON 

For a Very Little Girl 

I cannot be a Washington, 

However hard I try, 
But into something I must grow 

As fast the days go by. 

The world needs women, good and true, 

I'm glad I can be one, 
For that is even better than 

To be a Washington. 



EXERCISES 319 

THE STATES CROWNING WASHINGTON 

BY KATE BOWLES SHERWOOD 

For Forty-five Children 

This exercise will require forty-five children, boys 
or girls, or both, as most convenient. Where a 
stage and curtain are obtainable, have the speakers 
grouped upon the stage at rise of curtain. If a 
stage and curtain are impossible let the speakers sit 
near the platform, each coming forward quickly, as 
the predecessor retires. A bust or framed portrait 
of Washington must occupy the center of the stage 
or platform ; surrounding it must be an arch contain- 
ing forty-five nails. Each speaker at the close of 
speech hangs upon a nail the wreath he or she car- 
ries. Where flowers cannot be obtained in the win- 
ter time, use wreaths of evergreen. If a stage is 
possible, but not a curtain, the States may form at 
back of schoolroom and march upon the stage in 
time to martial or patriotic music. Each State may 
wear a badge with name if convenient. 

1. Maine comes marching on as one 
To crown immortal Washington. 

2. New Hampshire brings him honor, too, 
In offerings both sweet and true. 

3. Vermont here comes to take her stand 
To crown him with a lavish hand. 



320 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

4. Massachusetts, Pilgrim state, 
Proclaims him hero grand and great. 

5. Rhode Island comes with willing feet 
To place a garland fair and sweet. 

6. Connecticut, with laurel's light, 
Would keep our hero's honor bright. 

7. New York, a mighty empire now, 
Still crowns her gallant leader's brow. 

8. Pennsylvania holds him great, 

Who spurned a crown to make a state. 

9. New Jersey, Trenton can't forget, 
Her hero claims her honor yet. 

10. Delaware will wreathe her bays 

To tell our hero's matchless praise. 

11. Maryland crowns the peaceful heart 
Unspoiled by cruel deed or art. 

12. Virginia hails her first-born son, 
The proud and peerless Washington. 

13. West Virginia will proclaim 

The splendors of a patriot's name. 

14. North Carolina's wreath is brought 
To him who independence wrought. 



EXERCISES 

15. South Carolina follows on 

To twine a wreath for Washington. 

16. Georgia exalts him high 

Who made the flag of freedom fly. 

17. Alabama's lore is pure, 

For him whose fame shall aye endure. 

18. Florida a tribute brings 

To him exalted over kings. 

19. Ohio twines with generous hand 
The garlands of a goodly land. 

20. Indiana's wreath is green 

For him of grave and gentle mien. 

21. Illinois cannot forget 

That Washington is speaking yet. 

22. Michigan with love is stirred 
For him who always kept his word. 

2$. Wisconsin hangs the victor's palm 
For him, in peace or tumult calm. 

24. Kentucky would his praise prolong, 
For fortitude and valor strong. 

25. Missouri comes with gifts of love 
For Washington 's all men above. 



321 



322 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

26. Iowa exalts the man 

Who shaped his life on honor's plan. 

27. Minnesota will revere 

The name t«hat all the world holds dear. 

28. Nebraska brings from summits high 
Immortal gifts that cannot die. 

29. Kansas speaks of duties done, 

Of battles fought and victories won. 

30. Mississippi tells the tale 

Of glorious acts that never pale. 

31. Louisiana counts the deeds 

By duty done where valor leads. 

32. Arkansas brings an offering bright 
To him who struggled for the right. 

33. Texas will her honor show 

To faithful friend and generous foe. 

34. Tennessee exultant bears 

The crown a conquering hero wears. 

35. Nevada from her mountain height 

Has plucked this garland kissed with light, 

36. California's thousand flowers 
Will crown this patriot of ours. 



EXERCISES 323 

37. Oregon brings offerings rare 

For him she holds in loving care. 

38. Montana, from the mountains blue, 
Has brought him love, and honor, too. 

39. North Dakota loves him well, 
And comes his valiant deeds to tell. 



40. South Dakota follows on 

To crown the patriot Washington. 

41. Washington is proud to claim 
The glory of his noble name. 

42. Colorado ever true 

Will bring him loving garlands, too. 

43. Wyoming from her mountain height 
Would crown the man who stood for right. 

44. Idaho brings garlands fair 

For him whose life's beyond compare. 

45. Utah comes with fadeless pine 
In his immortal crown to shine. 



Chorus of States- 

We all will honor Washington, 
His fame will ever lead us on 



324 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

To better lives and nobler deeds, 

To guard our land in all her needs, 

To keep us ever kind and true 

To friends, and home, and country, too, 

In virtue strong, in honor bright, 

The foe of wrong, the friend of right. 

We all will honor Washington, 
The first in war when wrong was done. 
The first in peace when freedom came 
To crown him with immortal fame, 
The first in all our hearts to-day, 
To bind us all as one for aye, 
While battle and freedom lead us on 
We all will honor Washington. 

(Issued under the auspices of the George Wash- 
ington Memorial Association. Used by permission 
of the New England Publishing Co.) 



THE NEW GEORGE WASHINGTON 

ANONYMOUS 

To Be Recited by a Small Boy 

I am six years old, 

And like play and fun. 

I mean to grow up 

Like George Washington. 



EXERCISES 325 

So, when mother said, 

"Who ate all the pie?" 
I spoke like a man, 

And said, " It was I." 

But she didn't say 

She'd rather lose the pie, 
And know that her boy 

Woulcl not tell a lie. 

She just shut me up 

Where I couldn't see, 
Then sent me to bed 

Without any tea. 



IN PRAISE OF WASHINGTON 

For Nine Pupils 

First Pupil. — To the historian few characters 
appear so little to have shared the common frailties 
and imperfections of human nature as that of Wash- 
ington. William Smyth, 

Second Pupil. — No matter what may have been 
the immediate birthplace of such a man as Wash- 
ington! No clime can claim, no country can ap- 
propriate him ; the boon of Providence to the human 
race, his fame is eternity, his residence creation. 

Charles Phillips. 



326 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

Third Pupil. — As a ruler of mankind, he may be 
proposed as a model. Deeply impressed with the 
original rights of human nature, he never forgot that 
the end, and meaning, and aim of all just govern- 
ment was the happiness of the people. 

William Smyth. 

Fourth Pupil. — As a general, he marshaled the 
peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline 
the absence of experience. As a statesman, he en- 
larged the policy of the cabinet into the most com- 
prehensive system of general advantage; and such 
was the wisdom of his views and the philosophy of 
his counsels that to the soldier and the statesman 
he almost added the character of the sage. 

Charles Phillips. 

Fifth Pupil. — Immortal man! He took from 
the battle its crime, and from the conquest its 
chains; he left the victorious the glory of his self- 
denial, and turned upon the vanquished only the 
retribution of his mercy. Happy, proud America! 
The lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy ! 
The temptations of earth could not seduce your 
patriotism! Charles Phillips. 

Sixth Pupil. — It is the happy combination of 
rare talents and qualities, the harmonious union of 
the intellectual and moral powers, rather than the 
dazzling splendor of any one trait which constitutes 
the grandeur of his character. 

Jared Sparks. 



EXERCISES 327 

Seventh Pupil. — Washington did the two great- 
est things which, in politics, man can have the priv- 
ilege of attempting. He maintained, by peace, that 
independence of his country which he had acquired 
by war. He founded a free government, in the 
name of the principles of order, and by re-establish- 
ing their sway. Guizot. 

Eighth Pupil. — Greater soldiers, more intel- 
lectual statesmen, and profounder sages have doubt- 
less existed in the history of the English race, per- 
haps in our own country, but not one who to great 
excellence in the threefold composition of man — 
the physical, intellectual, and moral — has added such 
exalted integrity, such unaffected piety, such un- 
sullied purity of soul, and such wondrous control of 
his own spirit. He illustrated and adorned the civ- 
ilization of Christianity, and furnished an example 
of the wisdom and perfection of its teachings which 
the subtlest arguments of its enemies cannot im- 
peach. Vance. 

Ninth Pupil. — 
He fought, but not with love of strife ; he struck but 

to defend; 
And, ere he turned a people's foe, he sought to be a 

friend. 
He strove to keep his country's right by Reason's 

gentle word 
And sighed when fell injustice threw the challenge 

sword to sword. 



328 WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY 

He stood, the firm, the calm, the wise, the patriot 
and sage; 

He showed no deep, avenging hate, no burst of 
despot rage; 

He stood for liberty and truth, and dauntlessly led 
on, 

Till shouts of victory gave forth the name of Wash- 
ington. 

Eliza Cook. 

In Concert. — 
Washington, the brave, the wise, the good. 
Supreme in war, in council, and in peace. 
Valiant without ambition, discreet without fear, 

confident without presumption. 
In disaster, calm ; in success, moderate ; in all, him- 
self. 
The hero, the patriot, the Christian. 
The father of nations, the friend of mankind, 
Who, when he had won all, renounced all, and 
sought in the bosom of his family and of nature, 
retirement, and in the hope of religion, immor- 
tality. 

Inscription at Mount Vernon. 



THE END 



31^77-1 



